Israel continues intense strikes on Rafah ahead of ground invasion

Israeli strikes have left at least five people dead in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, as Israel vowed to launch a vast ground operation there.

The city's Kuwaiti hospital early on Tuesday said it had received "five martyrs and several injured" after Israeli strikes overnight.

The area is currently the site of intense Israeli military strike activity, according to witnesses and Palestinian security sources.

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

"Right now we have special forces scanning the crossing. We have operational control of the area and other crossings and we have special forces scanning the area," the military said.

Immediate evacuation orders

Earlier, the spokesperson of the Gaza border authority said the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt had been closed on the Palestinian side because of the presence of Israeli tanks.

Three humanitarian sources said that the flow of aid through the crossing is halted.

On Monday, the Israeli army issued immediate evacuation orders for Palestinians in the eastern neighbourhoods of Rafah and called on them to flee the town of al Mawasi in southern Gaza.

Rafah is home to more than 1.5 million displaced Palestinians who have taken refuge from the war.

On Monday, Israel's War Cabinet decided to push ahead with a military invasion in Rafah, even as Hamas announced its acceptance of an Egyptian-Qatari proposal for a ceasefire deal.