Israel killed 14 people in air strikes in Rafah on Tuesday in the refugee-clogged city on the southern tip of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical officials said.
More than a million Palestinians displaced by the five-month-old Israeli assault elsewhere in the enclave have been sheltering in Rafah, which abuts Gaza's border with Egypt.
Israel says one-sixth of Hamas' combat strength - four battalions of the rifle- and rocket-wielding fighters - is in Rafah and must be crushed before the war can conclude. But the prospect of a spiraling civilian toll has raised alarm abroad.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the overnight strikes on several buildings in Rafah. Medics said the dead included three women and three children. The identities of the eight men killed were not immediately clear.
At least 31,819 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's offensive, the enclave's health ministry said. Israeli officials said their forces have killed around 14,000 Gaza combatants.
The Palestinians accused Israel of embarking on a "destruction" of Rafah.
"Israel has initiated its aggression without waiting for permission from anyone and without declaring it to avoid international reactions," the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said.
An Israeli air strike in Nusseirat, central Gaza, killed six people, Palestinian medics said. The military did not immediately comment but has previously said the area had two Hamas battalions which had yet to face a ground operation.
Another strike on a house in northern Gaza City killed 15 people, medics said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on that but said a soldier was killed in fighting in the area, bringing its total combat losses in the war to 252.
Around 1,200 people were killed, and 253 kidnapped, by Hamas on Oct 7, according to Israeli tallies.
In Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, Shaban Abdel-Raouf, a father of five, hoped the Qatari-hosted talks between Israel and Hamas would yield a truce.
“We are looking forward to the good news from Qatar. Will it happen this time? Will they seal a deal? Over two million people in Gaza are praying they do,” Abdel-Raouf told Reuters via a messaging app.
Israeli forces killed more than 50 Palestinian gunmen and detained 180 suspected militants in a raid on Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip, the army said on Tuesday.
The raid on Gaza's biggest hospital began before dawn on Monday, with the military accusing Hamas of using it to hide fighters and plan attacks. At least one soldier has been killed by Palestinian gunfire within the compound, the military said.
