Preventing Israel's planned Rafah attack priority: Palestinian president

RAMALLAH, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday that preventing Israeli forces from invading Gaza's southern city of Rafah is an urgent priority.

"The urgent matter and priority for us is to prevent Israeli forces from invading Rafah, to which more than 1.5 million Palestinians have been displaced, which will cause a humanitarian catastrophe," said Abbas during his meeting with Bra