Egypt

Israeli airstrikes targeted areas in Rafah on Thursday, as reported by Palestinian residents, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed US President Joe Biden's warning of withholding weapons from Israel if it attacks the southern Gaza city.

Israel launched fresh strikes in the Gaza Strip Friday after negotiators pursuing a long-stalled truce agreement left talks in Cairo without having secured a deal.

AFP journalists in the Gaza Strip early Friday witnessed artillery strikes on Rafah on the territory's southern border with Egypt, while witnesses reported air strikes and fighting in Gaza City further north.

Israel bombarded the overcrowded Gaza city of Rafah, where it has launched a ground incursion, as talks resumed yesterday in Cairo aimed at agreeing the terms of a truce in the seven-month war.

Despite international objections, Israel sent tanks into Rafah on May 7 and seized the nearby crossing into Egypt that is the main conduit for aid into the besieged Palestinian territory.

Israel said it reopened the Kerem Shalom border crossing to humanitarian aid for Gaza Wednesday, four days after closing it in response to a rocket attack that killed four soldiers.

Israeli sent tanks into Rafah in southern Gaza, seizing control of the border crossing with Egypt on Tuesday, an operation the United Nations said denied it access to the key humanitarian passage.

Israeli forces have reportedly taken control of the Rafah border crossing on the Palestinian side, adjacent to the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt. A spokesman for Gaza's border authorities told Reuters the checkpoint on its Palestinian side was closed because of the presence of Israeli tanks.

Israel carried out strikes on the Gazan city of Rafah overnight as it sought to put "pressure" on Hamas ahead of talks in Egypt on Tuesday aimed at sealing a truce proposal endorsed by the group.

The Israeli army said it took "operational control" of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Tuesday and that troops were scanning the area.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called on Western nations to exert pressure on Israel to halt the ongoing conflict, following Hamas' acceptance of a ceasefire proposal.

"We welcomed the statement by Hamas that they accepted the ceasefire following our suggestions," Erdoğan told reporters in the capital Ankara late on May 6.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Monday informed mediators Qatar and Egypt that Hamas had accepted their proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza after nearly seven months of war.

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has cautioned that failing to heed the lessons from the ongoing tragedy in the Gaza Strip could lead to further conflict in the Palestinian enclave.