The UN refugee chief says “we must fervently do everything” to avoid the prospect of Palestinians fleeing into Egypt from Rafah in southern Gaza because it would make resolving the conflict “impossible”.

“Another refugee crisis from Gaza into Egypt, I can assure you, … would make the resolution of the Palestinian refugee question as a consequence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict impossible,” High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told the Reuters news agency at his agency’s headquarters in Geneva.

Netanyahu has said repeatedly Israel will conduct a ground offensive into Rafah, and Grandi says any attack on the city, where 1.4 million Palestinians are sheltering, may make the movement of Palestinians into Egypt “the only option for safety available”.

“But I repeat, we must not arrive at that atrocious dilemma, which would be really almost the end of the road for what is really important here: ultimate peace.”