Israeli tanks backed by warplanes and drones advanced deeper into the western part of the Gaza Strip city of Rafah on Wednesday, killing eight people, according to residents and Palestinian medics.
Residents said the tanks moved into five neighbourhoods after midnight. Heavy shelling and gunfire hit the tents of displaced families in the Al-Mawasi area, further to the west of the coastal enclave, they said.
Some eight months into the war, there has been no sign of let up in the fighting as efforts by international mediators, backed by the United States, have failed to persuade Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire.
Twelve Palestinians were also killed in an Israeli strike that hit a group of citizens and merchants in the south of the Gaza Strip, medical sources told news agency Reuters on Wednesday.
Medics and local Palestinian media said eight Palestinians were killed in Al-Mawasi and many families fled north in panic.
Residents said Israeli army forces blew up several homes in western Rafah. Over half of Gaza's 2.3 million population had sought shelter in Rafah before last month, when Israel began its ground offensive and forced most of the population to head northwards.
Some United Nations and Palestinian figures have put the number of those still remaining there at under 100,000.
