U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday renewed his warnings against a major Israeli assault on the crowded Gaza city of Rafah, saying Israel has not presented a plan to protect civilians.

"Absent such a plan, we can't support a major military operation going into Rafah because the damage it would do is beyond what's acceptable," Blinken told the McCain Institute's Sedona Forum in Arizona.

He also said that Hamas was the only holdup to a Gaza ceasefire as the militants prepared to send a delegation back to Cairo on Saturday for talks.