Rafah

Israel conducted fresh strikes on southern Gaza's overcrowded border town of Rafah on Friday, where more than a million displaced Palestinians have sought shelter, with key backer the United States warning of a looming "disaster".

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Wednesday to push for a ceasefire as the Gaza war enters its fifth month.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will kick off another Mideast crisis tour on Monday in a bid to secure a new truce in the Israel-Hamas war, as southern Gaza saw no let-up in fighting.

On his fifth trip to the region since Hamas's Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war, Blinken is expected to visit Saudi Arabia, Israel, Egypt and Qatar.

Scores were reported killed in overnight strikes across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, after Hamas said it needed more time to consider a proposal that would halt its war with Israel in the besieged Palestinian territory.

Israel bombs Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, against a backdrop of negotiations aimed at bringing about a pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas in the absence of a long-term peace plan.

Israel pounded Gaza on Saturday as the Palestinian territory suffered under a dire humanitarian situation and grappled with a telecommunications blackout on the 99th day of the war.

Fears of the conflict widening have grown after U.S. and British forces struck pro-Hamas Huthi rebels in Yemen following attacks on Red Sea shipping, with a fresh U.S. air strike confirmed Saturday.

Britain and Cyprus have sent 87 tonnes of aid to Gaza via Egypt, the two countries have said, with Cypriot officials saying they had successfully tested a screening mechanism for cargoes offering an alternative route for badly needed supplies.

Israel's relentless bombardments in Gaza for nearly three months destroyed 70 percent of the houses in the besieged strip, leaving nearly 1.5 million people homeless, the Hamas-run government's media office has revealed.

After nearly three months of deadly strikes, incessant displacements and sputtering humanitarian aid, "exhausted" Gazans say they are desperate for an end to the fighting as Israel's war against Hamas looks set to grind on into the new year.

It takes a while but slowly the children gathered around volunteer entertainer Ruaa Hassuna in a Gaza camp start clapping along as her music offers some respite from the horrors around them.