Israel intensifies strikes on Gaza's Rafah ahead of threatened invasion

Israel stepped up airstrikes on Rafah overnight, killing at least six Palestinians, medics said on Thursday, after saying it would evacuate civilians from the Gaza border city and storm it despite allies' warnings this could cause mass casualties. In the seventh month of a devastating air and ground war against the Gaza Strip's ruling Islamist group Hamas, Israeli forces also resumed bombarding northern and central areas of the enclave, as well as east of Khan Younis in the south. Israeli warplanes had hammered the north for a second day on Wednesday, shattering weeks of comparative calm there, and Israel said it was moving forward with plans for an all-out assault on Hamas holdouts in Rafah, on the southern border with Egypt.