In Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza Strip, there will be a disaster if Israel launches a large-scale ground operation, the United Nations has warned.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the army to prepare the evacuation of civilians from Rafah before a strong offensive against Hamas units.
In the attacks over the past two days, Israeli aviation carried out a series of attacks which killed at least 67 people, the Hamas-controlled health ministry said.
Israel said that "air strikes and a wave of attacks" followed the intervention in which the two hostages were freed.
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Rafah is the last stronghold of Hamas, Israel claims, although the UN says more than half of Gaza's residents have fled to the southern city, a major source of humanitarian aid.
Where is Rafa?
Rafah is the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip.
The governorate of Rafah - the city and its surroundings - borders Egypt and Israel.
The city of Rafah is on the border of Gaza and Egypt.
It is estimated that 1,5 million Palestinians currently live here, five times more than before the start of the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.
The area of Rafa covers about 60 square kilometers, roughly the size of the two Belgrade municipalities of Zvezdara.
The only border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt is in Rafah and has been used for decades to deliver aid.
Before the war, hundreds of trucks used this route daily to enter the Gaza Strip.
In the past, dozens of tunnels under the border were used for smuggling to bypass the Israeli-Egyptian blockade that restricted the flow of goods into Gaza.
This is why Rafa has become an important destination for trade and economy.
It is not known how many tunnels remain, although the Egyptian military claims to have ended smuggling and destroyed many underground passages in recent years.
History of Rafa
Rafah is one of the ancient historical cities of the Gaza Strip, and was conquered by the ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Greeks and Romans.
It was under British administration from 1917 to 1948, when the state of Israel was proclaimed.
A war with the Arab states followed, and at the end of the conflict, Rafah, along with the Gaza Strip, was under the control of Egypt.
And then in 1967 - during the conflict known as the Six-Day War - Israel took control of the city during its occupation of Gaza and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, as well as the West Bank, the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem.
Egypt and Israel reached a peace agreement in 1979, according to which the Sinai was returned to Egypt, the Rafah was divided and is partly in Egypt and partly in Gaza under the occupation of Israel.
Barbed wire divided the city, separating families.
As in other parts of Gaza, Rafah was home to thousands of Palestinian refugees expelled from their homes during the 1948 war, and their descendants.
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How is it now in Rafa?
The United Nations says more than half of Gaza's residents are now in Rafah, with Martin Griffiths, the UN aid coordinator, describing living conditions as "desperate".
"Lack of basic necessities for survival, surrounded by hunger, disease and death," Griffiths said.
Displaced people live on the streets, in classrooms or under tents.
The BBC, by analyzing satellite images (in the photo above), found an increased number of tents in Rafah since the beginning of the war.
Many, like Abu Rashdi Abu Dakin, fled the fighting in the north when the Israeli army ordered them to move south.
"We suffered a lot. I went from Gaza to Hamad, then to Khan Yunis, then from Khan Yunis to Rafah. But for how long?" he asked in an interview with the BBC after hearing about Israel's threats of a ground offensive.
There are many displaced persons in Rafah who told the BBC that they would prefer to stay in the western part of the city near the Mediterranean Sea, fearing that they will be exposed to an "invasion" from the eastern side, near the border with Israel.
Only a few hospitals are still working in the city, but all lack medical equipment and medicines, and power outages are becoming more frequent.
And while Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu warns that he will launch a ground offensive on Rafah despite international condemnation, most of those in the city are asking the same question as Abu Dakin:
"Everyone from Gaza is here. Where can we go?".
Israel says it is trying to minimize civilian casualties during the operation launched in response to a Hamas attack last October that killed 1.200 people and took about 240 hostages.
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