Israel's aerial and ground bombardments across the Gaza Strip killed at least 35 Palestinians Thursday even as Tel Aviv said it was ready to resume stalled truce talks.
Israeli tanks advanced in Rafah's southeast, edged toward the city's western district of Yibna and continued to operate in three eastern suburbs, residents said.
"The occupation (Israeli forces) is trying to move further to the west, they are on the edge of Yibna, which is densely populated. They didn't invade it yet," one resident said, asking not to be named.
"We hear explosions and we see black smoke coming up from the areas where the army has invaded. It was another very difficult night," he told Reuters via a chat app.
The military push comes at a time when global pressure for a cease-fire has mounted on Israel and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as three European countries said Wednesday they would recognize a Palestinian state.
The week started with the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court seeking arrest warrants over war crimes against Netanyahu and his defense minister as well as three Hamas leaders.
Israel has angrily rejected those moves, voicing "disgust" over the ICC move and saying a recognition of the State of Palestine rewarded Hamas.
But domestic pressure has also risen as supporters of hostages trapped in war-torn Gaza again rallied outside Netanyahu's office, passionately demanding steps to free them.
Netanyahu vowed to continue fighting Hamas to "ensure what we have seen tonight never happens again," and more bombardment rained down overnight on targets in the devastated Gaza Strip.
But his office also said that the war cabinet had asked the Israeli negotiating team "to continue negotiations for the return of the hostages."
Bleak assessment
The previous round of truce talks, involving U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators, ended shortly after Israel launched its attack on Gaza's far-southern city of Rafah early this month.
Israel went ahead with the assault on the last Gaza city so far spared a major ground offensive in defiance of global opposition, including from top ally the United States.
Washington voiced concerns that 1.4 million Palestinians who had been trapped in crowded tent cities and shelters there would be caught in the line of fire.
Israel has since ordered mass evacuations from the city, and the U.N. says more than 800,000 people have fled.
Israel's National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi has meanwhile given a bleak assessment of the war so far to a meeting of the parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee, according to a report by Israel's Channel 13.
He reportedly said that Israel has "not achieved any of the strategic aims of the war – not conditions for a hostage deal, we haven't toppled Hamas, and we haven't allowed residents of the (Gaza) periphery to return safely home."
The conflict was triggered by the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion, which resulted in the death of more than 1,170 people in Israel, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Out of 252 people taken hostage that day, 128 are still being held inside the Gaza Strip, including at least 37 who the army says are dead.
Israel has killed more than 35,709 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in the Gaza Strip since, according to the Gazan Health Ministry.