GAZA: Israeli helicopters struck Gaza's Rafah on Thursday, residents said, with Hamas fighters reporting street battles in the southern city after top US diplomat Antony Blinken said a truce was still possible.
Israeli ground forces have been operating in Rafah since early May, despite widespread alarm over the fate of Palestinian civilians there, including in a ruling by the International Court of Justice later that month.
Western areas of Rafah came under heavy fire on Thursday from the air, sea and land, residents said.
"There was very intense fire from warplanes, Apaches (helicopters) and quadcopters, in addition to Israeli artillery and military battle ships, all of which were striking the area west of Rafah," one said.
Hamas said its fighters were battling Israeli troops on the streets in the city, near the besieged Gaza Strip's border with Egypt.
The Gaza war began after Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel's retaliatory military offensive has left at least 37,232 people dead in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-ruled territory's health ministry.
Efforts to reach a truce stalled when Israel began ground operations in Rafah, but US President Joe Biden in late May launched a new effort to secure a deal.
On Monday, the UN Security Council adopted a US-drafted resolution supporting the plan.
Blinken, in Doha on Wednesday to promote Biden's ceasefire roadmap, said Washington would work with regional partners to "close the deal".
Hamas responded to mediators Qatar and Egypt late on Tuesday. Blinken said some of its proposed amendments "are workable and some are not".
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said the group sought "a permanent ceasefire and complete withdrawal" of Israeli troops from Gaza, demands repeatedly rejected by Israel.
The plan includes a six-week ceasefire, a hostage-prisoner exchange and Gaza reconstruction.
It would be the first truce since a week-long November pause in fighting saw hostages freed and Palestinians released from Israeli jails.
Blinken said Israel was behind the plan, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government has far-right members strongly opposed to the deal, has not publicly endorsed it.
Blinken expressed hopes that an agreement could be reached.
"We have to see... over the course of the coming days whether those gaps are bridgeable," he said.
A UN investigation concluded on Wednesday that Israel had committed crimes against humanity during the war, while Israeli and Palestinian armed groups had both committed war crimes. — Reuters
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
