Three people have been killed in an Israeli air attack on a house belonging to the al-Darbi family west of Rafah city.
This adds to the at least 12 other people who have been killed in separate strikes on Rafah overnight, as the Israeli military intensifies its bombardment of the city in southern Gaza.
The Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt is closed on the Palestinian side because of the presence of Israeli tanks, the spokesperson of the Gaza border authority told Reuters.
Three humanitarian sources told Reuters that the flow of aid through the crossing is halted.
Israel carried out strikes on the Gazan city of Rafah overnight as it sought to put “pressure” on Hamas ahead of talks in Egypt aimed at sealing a truce proposal endorsed by the Hamas.
After having vowed for weeks to push into the southern border town, Israel called on Monday for Palestinians in eastern Rafah to leave for an “expanded humanitarian area” ahead of a ground incursion.
After talks earlier in the day failed to produce an agreement, Hamas said Monday evening that it had informed mediators Egypt and Qatar of its “approval of their proposal regarding a ceasefire” in the seven-month-old conflict, prompting cheering crowds to take to the streets of Rafah.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the proposal “is far from Israel’s essential demands”, but the government would send negotiators for talks “to exhaust the potential for arriving at an agreement”.
In the meantime, it added, “Israel is continuing the operation in Rafah to exert military pressure on Hamas in order to advance the release of our hostages and the other objectives of the war”.
