Medics in the besieged Palestinian enclave reported five Israeli airstrikes on Rafah early on Thursday (Apr 25) that hit at least three houses, killing at least six people including a local journalist.
Global concern has mounted over the looming operation against Hamas militants in Rafah, where much of Gaza's population has sought refuge from more than six months of war.
Abutting the Egyptian border, Rafah’s population has been swollen by more than a million Palestinians who fled the half-year-old Israeli offensive through the rest of Gaza.
At the time of writing, rescuers were pulling bodies out of the rubble after an Israeli air strike on a residential building in southern Gaza’s Rafah city.