Israel Launches Deadly Airstrikes on Rafah

Israel launches deadly airstrikes on Rafah, after threatening to send troops in to hunt for Hamas militants in the southern Gaza city where around 1.4 million Palestinians have sought refuge.

Another 97 people were killed over the past 24 hours in Hamas-run Gaza, the health ministry said, as a US envoy was in Israel for fresh efforts to secure a truce.

International concern has spiraled over the territory's escalating civilian death toll and the desperate humanitarian crisis sparked by the war that followed Hamas's October 7 attack against Israel.

Mediators including the United States, Qatar and Egypt have tried and so far failed to broker a ceasefire and hostage release deal, but this week have been making a new push to break the deadlock.

More than four months of relentless fighting and bombardment have flattened much of Gaza and pushed its population of around 2.4 million to the brink of famine, according to the United Nations.

The war has also triggered mounting violence in the occupied West Bank, where three Palestinian gunmen opened fire on cars in a traffic jam, killing one person and wounding eight, including a pregnant woman.

The attackers were shot dead at the scene, near a Jewish settlement east of Jerusalem.

Israeli far-right politicians quickly called for more citizens to carry weapons, while Hamas urged an escalation in attacks.

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

The UN's humanitarian agency said aid to Gaza was being gravely hampered by "intense hostilities, limitations on the entry and delivery of aid, and growing insecurity".

In the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, medical charity Doctors Without Borders said an Israeli tank had fired on a house sheltering their employees and families, killing two people.

MSF condemned the strike in the "strongest possible terms".