Rafah is the city Israel told Palestinians to move towards back in October as it issued a warning its military would soon invade northern areas, including Gaza City.
But now, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered his military to prepare to put troops on the ground in Rafah too.
A growing number of world leaders, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, have expressed deep concerns and warned of disaster should Israel launch a ground assault into the crowded city.
This would see Israel send its soldiers into a city that has become the largest camp of displaced persons in the world.
Gaza health authorities say more than 28,000 Palestinians have been killed so far in this war, and there are fears a ground invasion of Rafah would see that number surge even higher.
But Mr Netanyahu is resolute in his mission to destroy Hamas after the militants killed 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 people hostage on October 7.
He has ordered his military to develop a plan to move civilians in Rafah before the ground assault begins, but human rights groups say that in Gaza, there is no safe place to go.
Why is Israel planning to invade Rafah?
And it was on October 13 that Israel told residents of Gaza City to evacuate south, signalling a ground invasion would soon begin.
Since its troops crossed the border, Israel has been pushing the population of Gaza south, displacing more than one million people and wedging them against the Egyptian border fence.
Because Israel has continually designated Rafah as a so-called “safe zone” — an area where Palestinians could flee to escape fighting — there are now more than 1.5 million people crammed into the small city.
Israel says this has all been in pursuit of destroying Hamas.
But now, Israel is claiming there are several Hamas brigades operating from within Rafah and that senior Hamas leaders, including Yahya Sinwar, could be hidden there.
Israel believes these are some of the last remaining Hamas militants in Gaza, something Hamas denies.
Israel also suspects some of the 130-plus remaining hostages are being held captive in Rafah, and they hope an operation there will see them rescued.
Since announcing his intent to invade Rafah, Mr Netanyahu has repeatedly stressed it is the only way for Israel to win the war.
“It is impossible to achieve the goal of the war of eliminating Hamas by leaving four Hamas battalions in Rafah,” he said.
The ground invasion is yet to begin and the timeline for it is unclear, but on Monday, Israel launched a new wave of air strikes into Rafah.
Palestinian authorities say those strikes killed at least 67 people, in what Israel said was part of an operation to rescue two hostages.
The aerial attack sparked major fears among Palestinian civilians that the ground incursion had begun, but Israel says the offensive is still being planned. With ABC News