Israeli Airstrikes Continue in Gaza's Rafah Area

Israeli forces struck targets across the Gaza Strip, with witnesses reporting air raids around the southern city of Rafah, the latest focus of the nearly eight-month war.

Israel launched its military incursion into Rafah in early May despite international objections over the safety of civilians sheltering in the city on Gaza's border with Egypt.

A strike that sparked a fire and killed dozens in a displacement camp at the weekend drew a wave of fresh condemnation.

Witnesses said Israeli strikes hit the Rafah area as well as central Gaza's Nuseirat.

Strikes on two separate locations killed a total of 11 people overnight, medical sources at a hospital in Deir al-Balah and the Nuseirat refugee camp reported.

The Israeli military said its troops "continue operational activities" in the Rafah area, and found rocket launchers, weapons and "tunnel shafts" in the city center.

An airstrike "targeted and eliminated" a militant in that area, it added.

In central Gaza, further air strikes "eliminated several militants who operated near" troops, the military said without elaborating.

Israel, which has repeatedly vowed to destroy Hamas after the Palestinian militant group attacked southern Israel on October 7, said its forces had taken over the 14-kilometer Philadelphi corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, where it alleges weapons were being smuggled.

Egypt, a longtime mediator in the conflict, has yet to officially comment on the Israeli takeover, which officials have previously said could violate the two countries' 1979 peace deal.

Israel said its forces had killed about 300 Palestinian militants in Rafah since launching its military operation in the city.

A stream of civilians fled Rafah, taking their belongings on their shoulders, in cars or on donkey-drawn carts.

The United Nations has warned of looming famine in Gaza.