Israeli bombings killed at least eleven people in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, a local hospital stated early Tuesday, as Israel vowed to launch a massive ground attack.
The city’s Kuwaiti hospital reported eleven martyrs and several injured from Israeli strikes overnight.
Witnesses and Palestinian security sources stated that the region is currently the target of intensive Israeli military strikes.
After vowing for weeks to advance into the southern border town, Israel ordered Palestinians in eastern Rafah to evacuate to an expanded humanitarian area ahead of a ground operation.
Following the earlier talks failed to yield a truce, Hamas announced Monday evening that it had told mediators Egypt and Qatar of its approval of their proposal regarding a ceasefire in the seven-month-old war, prompting cheering crowds to take to the streets of Rafah.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office stated, “The proposal is far from Israel’s essential demands, but the government would send negotiators for talks to exhaust the potential for reaching an agreement”.
In the meantime, it went on to say, “Israel is continuing the operation in Rafah to exert military pressure on Hamas to advance the release of our hostages and the other objectives of the war”.
