Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip

Israel bombed the Gaza Strip, including Rafah, on Saturday, a day after the top U.N. court ordered it to halt military operations in the southern city as efforts get underway in Paris to seek a ceasefire in the war sparked by Hamas's Oct. 7 attack.

Israeli forces struck the Gaza Strip on Friday, as the U.N.'s top court was due to rule on a plea to halt the military offensive over accusations of "genocide".

On the ground in Gaza, witnesses reported overnight air and naval strikes on Gaza City and gunfire to its south, with several casualties reported in two separate raids on residential blocks in the city's north and centre.

Fighting raged Friday in Gaza after Israel vowed to intensify its ground offensive in Rafah despite international concerns for the hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians in the southern city.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has emphasized the critical importance of the battle for Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip for Israel, which has been engaged in a war against Hamas for over seven months.

U.S. troops early Thursday anchored a long-awaited temporary pier, meant to boost aid deliveries into war-ravaged Gaza, to a beach in the besieged Palestinian territory, the U.S. military said.

The United States has issued a stunning criticism of Israel's use of American weapons in the Gaza war, after Israeli forces intensified operations around the southern city of Rafah, where more than a million displaced people are sheltering.

The White House has issued a statement affirming President Joe Biden's commitment to maintaining cooperation with Israel until the complete eradication of the radical Palestinian group Hamas from the Gaza Strip, as reported by Reuters.

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.

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.

Hamas said its delegation was heading to Cairo on Saturday to resume Gaza truce talks, as the United Nations warned that Israel's threatened assault on the city of Rafah could produce a "bloodbath".

Foreign mediators have been waiting for the Palestinian militant group to respond to a proposal to halt fighting for 40 days and exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners.