In a statement that may signal a major ground operation in Rafah is imminent, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallad announced Thursday that the Israeli military will send more troops to the southern Gaza city.

The announcement raised fears that Israel plans to push deeper into Rafah despite international concerns about a ground invasion of the city, where more than a million displaced people have taken refuge.

“They have already attacked hundreds of targets,” Galland said after a meeting with commanders in the Rafah region. “This business will continue.”

Hundreds of thousands of civilians have fled the city in recent days, many of them displaced for the umpteenth time during the war, UN officials say.

Until now, Israeli troops and tanks had made only a limited incursion into eastern Rafah while on May 7 they captured the town’s border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, a vital entry point for aid. The crossing remains closed with hundreds of trucks carrying aid piling up in Egypt.

Galand, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, also said Israeli troops destroyed tunnels in Rafah. Two Israeli officials said a key goal of the operation was to destroy the tunnels between Egypt and Gaza that have allowed Hamas to replenish its arms supply over the years.

Egypt and Israel maintain a decades-old peace treaty and close security cooperation, but Israel’s invasion of Rafah has put the two countries’ relations to the test.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly spoken of the need to destroy the Hamas battalions in Rafah. In recent days, some Hamas fighters have left the city, according to Israeli officials. The militants headed north along with civilians, the officials said.