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Hours after Hamas announced ithat it had approved a cease-fire proposal to halt the war in Gaza, the Israel Defense Force said it was conducting “targeted” strikes in the southernmost city of Rafah, where millions of civilians have taken refuge.

“The War Cabinet unanimously decided that Israel continues the operation in Rafah to exert military pressure on Hamas in order to promote the release of our hostages and the other goals of the war,” the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.

“At the same time, although the Hamas proposal is far from Israel’s necessary requirements, Israel will send a delegation of working-class mediators to exhaust the possibility of reaching an agreement under conditions acceptable to Israel,” the office said.

Israel’s military advance in Rafah, a key passageway for humanitarian aid, bucks the U.S.’ repeated warnings to Israel to abstain from those attacks.

“We cannot and we will not speak for IDF operations. but we’ve made clear our views about operations in Rafah that could potentially put more than a million innocent people at greater risk,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said at a White House press briefing on Monday.

President Joe Biden reiterated that warning on a half-hour Monday call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which took place before Hamas had announced its approval of a cease-fire proposal.

Last week, the U.S. paused a shipment of weapons to Israel, including 2,000-pound bombs, as Israel continued to signal that a ground invasion of Rafah could be coming soon, two senior administration officials confirmed to NBC News.

The White House is also in the process of reviewing Hamas’ cease-fire proposal and has not yet signaled its stance on the plan.

“Of course, we will be discussing it with Egypt with Qatar with Israel, the three countries with whom we have been working throughout this negotiation process,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a press briefing Monday afternoon. “Obviously if those conversations have not already started they will be ongoing in the next several hours.”

The proposal would require a swap of 33 Palestinian prisoners for every Israeli hostage released, along with a permanent halt to Israel’s military operations and hostilities in Gaza, a senior Arab source familiar with the proposal told NBC News.

Hostage release negotiations intensified over the weekend, with facilitation from U.S. CIA Director William Burns, alongside mediators from Egypt and Qatar. Burns continued to engage in talks on Monday after Hamas’ announcement.