The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) approved a plan Sunday for attacking the final Hamas stronghold in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, near the Egyptian border, as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken prepared to visit on Tuesday.

The IDF said in a statement:

Today (Sunday), on the eve of the second holiday of Passover, the Chief of the General Staff, LTG Herzi Halevi, discussed and approved plans for the continuation of the war with the Commanding Officer of the Southern Command, MG Yaron Finkelman, and all the division and brigade commanders in the command.

The U.S. has opposed an attack on Rafah, citing concern for Palestinians who have taken refuge there, insisting that there are other ways to remove Hamas from Gaza, though it has not explained how to do so.

According to the Times of Israel, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who governs communities in the West Bank, expects an Israeli attack on Rafah within a few days unless the United States intervenes to stop the IDF.

It is likely that Blinken will attempt to dissuade Israel from a Rafah operation. According to Ynet, he is scheduled to visit Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the hardest-hit Israeli communities on October 7, the highest-ranking U.S. official to do so.

The U.S. is also reportedly working with Israel to prevent the International Criminal Court from issuing indictments against Israeli officials and soldiers over the Gaza war, though Israel has grumbled that the U.S. is doing so quietly.

Indictments by the tribunal would not only confirm its institutional bias against Israel — which is fighting a genocidal terrorist army, and doing so with scrupulous attention to human rights law — but also endanger U.S. troops in future.

Meanwhile, U.S. Navy ships have arrived off the coast of Gaza to begin building a floating pier for humanitarian aid, with the IDF providing security onshore.

Israel has hinted that it might delay an attack on Rafah if Hamas agrees to a deal to release some of the remaining 133 hostages, as many as 100 of whom may still be alive. Egypt has pushed both sides toward a deal, and Israel has made concessions to Hamas demands on a pullback of troops from northern Gaza. But the sticking point remains Hamas’s demand that Israel agree to a permanent ceasefire, which would allow the terrorist group to survive and win the war.

The IDF has planned to evacuate tens of thousands of civilians from Rafah to areas nearby in the Gaza Strip. It must also weigh carefully the likelihood that Hamas is using the hostages as human shields, placing their lives in danger.

Netanyahu said in February that victory in Gaza would only take “weeks” once a Rafah operation began. Opposition from the Biden administration caused delays that have now cost months. In the interim, international protests have grown against Israel, playing into Hamas’s hands and hardening its resolve.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.