Israel strikes Gaza's Rafah as truce talks under way

Israel launches air strikes on Gaza, escalating conflict with Hamas as global powers seek ceasefire amid humanitarian crisis.

Israel launched air strikes Thursday on southern Gaza's Rafah after threatening to send troops against Hamas militants in the city where around 1.4 million Palestinians have sought refuge.

Global powers trying to find a way to end the Israel-Hamas war have so far failed, but a U.S. envoy was expected in Israel on Thursday in the latest attempt to secure a truce deal.

The war has also triggered mounting violence in the occupied West Bank, where three Palestinian gunmen opened fire Thursday on cars in a highway traffic jam, killing one and wounding eight including a young pregnant woman.

The attackers were shot dead at the scene, near a Jewish settlement east of Jerusalem. Israeli far-right politicians quickly called for more citizens to carry weapons and for even greater restrictions on Palestinian West Bank residents.

International concern has spiralled over Gaza's high civilian death toll and the dire humanitarian crisis sparked by the war that followed Hamas's October 7 attack against Israel.

More than four months of relentless fighting and bombardment have flattened much of the Hamas-run coastal territory and pushed its population of around 2.4 million to the brink of famine, according to the UN.

Alarm has centred on Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah, where more than 1.4 million people are now living in crowded shelters and makeshift tents where disease threatens.