Israeli air strikes killed 17 people in Gaza’s Rafah overnight, medics said yesterday, as over a million Palestinians cramming into the border city await a full-blown offensive with the rest of their enclave in ruins and nowhere left to run.

Any Israeli military advance into southern Gaza’s Rafah area could cause mass deaths among the more than a million Palestinians trapped there, with humanitarian aid in danger of collapse, aid workers said yesterday.

Israeli forces yesterday bombed areas in the southern border city of Rafah where more than half of Gaza’s population is sheltering, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a proposal to end offensive in the Palestinian enclave.

Iraq yesterday condemned a US air strike that killed a senior commander from a pro-Iran armed group accused of having been involved in attacks on American troops in the region.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi yesterday criticised the deployment of US troops in the Middle East, saying it “disrupts security”.

Hamas has proposed a three-stage ceasefire plan that would quiet the guns in Gaza for four-and-a-half months, during which all hostages would go free, Israel would withdraw its troops from the Gaza Strip and an agreement would be reached on an end to the offensive.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels launched six missiles toward two merchant ships later on Tuesday, reportedly causing light damage to one of the vessels, the US military said.

Israeli forces killed at least 14 Palestinians in airstrikes as they pressed their onslaught in Gaza’s main southern city Khan Younis yesterday, while the top US diplomat pursued a quest to broker a ceasefire.

Iran said yesterday it “will not hesitate” to respond in the event of US attacks on its territory after the White House declined to say whether strikes on Iran were ruled out.

A Palestinian doctor said Israeli forces in Gaza detained him when they overran a hospital and subjected him to abuse during 45 days of captivity including sleep deprivation and constant shackling and blindfolding before releasing him last week.

Israeli forces have killed dozens of Palestinians in operations throughout the Gaza Strip over a 24-hour-period, the military said in a statement yesterday, citing the southern hub city of Khan Younis as one of the locations.

Scores of Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip yesterday, after Hamas said it needed more time to consider a proposal that would halt Israel’s offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory.

Israeli forces in Gaza have systematically destroyed buildings in an attempt to create a buffer zone inside the Palestinian territory, experts and rights groups told AFP, raising fears over the civilian cost.

The United States launched airstrikes in Iraq and Syria against more than 85 targets linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) and militias it backs, reportedly killing nearly 40 people, in retaliation for a deadly attack on US troops.

Israeli airstrikes killed 18 Palestinians in the Gaza cities of Rafah and Deir Al-Balah, Gaza health officials said yesterday, as residents of the enclave feared Israel would expand its ground offensive into those last remaining areas where people have sought shelter.

The UN voiced fears Friday about worsening conditions in southern Gaza, saying a surge in people seeking safety in Rafah had made the town a “pressure cooker of despair”.

The United Nations said yesterday it estimates that at least 17,000 children in the Gaza Strip have been left unaccompanied or separated nearly four months into the offensive.

Israeli forces shelled the outskirts of the last refuge on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip yesterday, where the displaced, penned against the border fence in their hundreds of thousands, said they feared a new assault with nowhere left to flee.

Iran will not start a war but would “respond strongly” to anyone who tried to bully it, President Ebrahim Raisi said yesterday, a day after the US said it was planning attacks on Iranian sites in Iraq and Syria.

Hamas is unlikely to reject a Gaza ceasefire proposal it received from mediators this week, but will not sign it without assurances that Israel has committed to ending the offensive, a Palestinian official close to the talks said yesterday.