Israel strikes Gaza's Rafah despite truce talks being underway

Israel launched air strikes on southern Gaza's Rafah on Thursday after threatening to send troops against Hamas militants in the city where around 1.4 million Palestinians have sought refuge.

Global powers' efforts to find a way to end the Israel-Hamas conflict have so far failed. The conflict has also triggered mounting violence in the occupied West Bank, where three Palestinian gunmen opened fire on cars in a highway traffic jam on Thursday, killing one and wounding eight, including a young pregnant woman.

The attackers were shot dead at the scene, near a Jewish settlement east of Jerusalem. Israeli politicians quickly called for more citizens to carry weapons and for even greater restrictions on Palestinian West Bank residents.

International concern has spiraled over Gaza's high civilian death toll and the dire humanitarian crisis sparked by the conflict that followed Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.

More than four months of relentless fighting and bombardment have flattened much of the Hamas-run coastal territory and pushed its population of around 2.4 million to the brink of famine, according to the UN.

Alarm has centered on Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah, where more than 1.4 million people are now living in crowded shelters and makeshift tents where disease threatens.

Israel has warned that if Hamas does not free the remaining hostages held in Gaza by the start of Ramadan, it will keep fighting during the Muslim holy month, including in Rafah.

Israel has already been bombing targets in Rafah, which was again hit overnight and where early multiple air strikes could be heard .

Gaza's Civil Defence agency reported "a number of martyrs." Meanwhile, elsewhere in Rafah, residents walked among the rubble of the city's al-Faruq mosque after strikes.

The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Hamas militants also took about 250 Israeli and foreign hostages – 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 30 presumed dead, according to Israel.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 29,410 people, primarily women and children, according to the latest count by Gaza's health ministry.

Israel's Wartime Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz said Israel's operation in Rafah would begin "after the evacuation of the population." However, his government has not specified where civilians could go in devastated Gaza.

Gazan residents have repeatedly said nowhere is safe, and the health ministry said on Thursday that 97 people had been killed across the Palestinian territory over the previous day.

Hamas said its chief, Ismail Haniyeh, was already in Cairo for talks.

Israel's Gantz said there were efforts to "promote a new plan for the return of the hostages," adding, "We are seeing the first signs that indicate the possibility of progress in this direction."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that the army will keep fighting until it has destroyed Hamas and freed the remaining hostages.

Netanyahu's failure to bring home all the captives has led to mounting protests and calls for early elections.

The UN humanitarian agency Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned that humanitarian assistance to Gaza is being gravely hampered by the "intense hostilities, limitations on the entry and delivery of aid and growing insecurity."

(With input from agencies)