Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead with an invasion of Rafah, resisting pressure from US president Joe Biden who warned such an offensive would be a “red line”.

Mr Biden said on Saturday that he opposed an escalation into Rafah – a city in the south and now a refuge for approximately half of the 2.3 million population – and that he could not accept “30,000 more Palestinians dead”.

But on Sunday, Mr Neyanyahu retorted: “We’ll go there. We’re not going to leave them. You know, I have a red line. You know what the red line is? That October 7 doesn’t happen again. Never happens again.”

The Israeli prime minister also dismissed suggestions of a ceasefire for the month of Ramadan, saying he did not see any “breakthrough in the negotiations”.

“We’ve destroyed three-quarters of Hamas’ fighting terrorism battalions. And we’re close to finishing the last part in warfare,” he said, adding that fighting would not “take more than two months.”

Follow the latest updates below