Gaza Strip evacuations

Israel launched strikes on Gaza Sunday after it expanded an evacuation order for Rafah, with the United Nations warning an outright invasion of the crowded southern city risked an "epic" disaster.

Israeli strikes on Saturday hit parts of Gaza including Rafah where Israel expanded an evacuation order and the U.N. warned of "epic" disaster if an outright invasion of the crowded city occurs.

Residents of Rafah in the Gaza Strip are reporting ongoing explosions and gunfire as fierce clashes continue in the area. Israeli tanks have nearly encircled the eastern part of the town, targeting what Israeli intelligence identifies as key Hamas strongholds. The intensifying Israeli offensive has prompted over 110,000 Palestinians to flee Rafah in recent days.

Israel bombarded the overcrowded Gaza city of Rafah, where it has launched a ground incursion, as talks resumed yesterday in Cairo aimed at agreeing the terms of a truce in the seven-month war.

Despite international objections, Israel sent tanks into Rafah on May 7 and seized the nearby crossing into Egypt that is the main conduit for aid into the besieged Palestinian territory.

Israel carried out strikes on the Gazan city of Rafah overnight as it sought to put "pressure" on Hamas ahead of talks in Egypt on Tuesday aimed at sealing a truce proposal endorsed by the group.

The Israeli army said it took "operational control" of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Tuesday and that troops were scanning the area.

The Israeli army on Monday ordered tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza's southern city of Rafah to start evacuating from the area, signaling that a long-promised ground invasion there could be imminent.

Hamas said its delegation was heading to Cairo on Saturday to resume Gaza truce talks, as the United Nations warned that Israel's threatened assault on the city of Rafah could produce a "bloodbath".

Foreign mediators have been waiting for the Palestinian militant group to respond to a proposal to halt fighting for 40 days and exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

The Israel-Hamas war entered its 200th day on Tuesday, with fears mounting of an Israeli invasion in the overcrowded south of Gaza amid calls for hostages to be freed.

The Israeli army carried out intense shelling overnight of the Gaza neighbourhoods of Al-Tuffah, Shujaiya and Zeitun.

Residents reported heavy Israeli fire in central Gaza on Friday, with regional tensions soaring after Iran threatened reprisals over a strike in Syria this month that killed two Iranian generals.

U.S. President Joe Biden has called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of the war in Gaza a mistake and called for his government to flood the beleaguered territory with aid, ramping up pressure on Israel to reach a cease-fire and widening a rift between the two staunch allies.