JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel has set the date for a ground offensive in Gaza's Rafah.

He did not say when the offensive would take place, but said that "the victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there."

"It will happen -- there is a date," he said in a video statement.

The United Nations and aid experts have been warning that any military operation in Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city where about 1.4 million people have been seeking refuge from bombardments elsewhere, will exact an unacceptably high toll on Gaza.