Israel Forces Intensifly Bomb Rafah Area 

Gaza, MINA – Israeli forces bombed areas in the southern border city of Rafah on Thursday, where more than half of Gaza’s population is sheltering, as diplomats sought to salvage ceasefire talks after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a Hamas proposal, Anadolu Agency reports.

In a sign the diplomacy was not over in the biggest Washington-led push yet to quiet the guns, a Hamas delegation led by senior official, Khalil Al-Hayya, arrived in Cairo on Thursday for ceasefire talks with mediators Egypt and Qatar.

Netanyahu said, on Wednesday, terms proposed by Hamas for a ceasefire in the four-month old war were “delusional”, and vowed to fight on, saying victory was in reach and just months away.

Gazans are desperately hoping a ceasefire could arrive in time to head off threatened Israeli assault on Rafah, hard against Gaza’s southern border fence, now home to over a million people, many of them in makeshift tents.

An Israeli operation in Rafah without due consideration for the plight of civilians would be “a disaster”, said White House spokesperson, John Kirby, adding “we would not support it”.

Israeli planes bombed parts of the city on Thursday morning, residents said, killing at least 11 people in strikes on two houses. Tanks also shelled some areas in eastern Rafah, intensifying the residents’ fears of an imminent ground assault. (T/RE1/P2)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)