Washington DC - Representatives Pramila Jayapal and Madeleine Dean led 55 of their colleagues in a Wednesday letter to President Joe Biden calling for urgent action to prevent an Israeli invasion of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

"We write with urgency to say: an offensive invasion into Rafah by Israel in the upcoming days is wholly unacceptable," the members of Congress said.

The letter notes that Rafah has seen its population go from around 280,000 to over 1.4 million in the last six months as a relentless Israeli assault has driven scores of Palestinians from their homes. Starvation, malnutrition, dehydration, and disease are rampant in the area and in occupied Gaza as a whole.

These desperate conditions have not stopped Israel from advancing plans to invade Rafah, a move the representatives say "risks the start of yet another escalatory spiral, immediately putting the region back on the brink of a broader war that neither Israel nor the United States can afford."

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The US government has been complicit in Gaza's destruction, authorizing billions more in military aid to Israel on top of sending numerous arms shipments to the occupying forces since October.

In light of the dire humanitarian situation in Rafah, members of Congress wrote: "We urge you to invoke existing law and policy to immediately withhold certain offensive military aid to the Israeli government, including aid sourced from legislation already signed into law, in order to preempt a full-scale assault on Rafah."

"If the Israeli government will not uphold international law and protect civilians, then the United States must act to protect innocent life."