ISRAELI helicopters struck Rafah on Thursday, its residents said, with Hamas militants reporting street battles in the Gaza Strip's southernmost city after United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said a truce was still possible.

Israeli ground forces have been operating in Rafah, near the Egyptian border, since early May to pursue Hamas fighters, despite widespread international alarm over the fate of displaced people crowded in the city.

Western areas of Rafah came under heavy Israeli fire from the air, sea and land, residents said.

"There was very intense fire from warplanes, Apaches (helicopters) and quadcopters, in addition to Israeli artillery and military battleships, all of which were striking the area west of Rafah," one of them told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' armed wing, said its fighters were battling Israeli troops on the streets of the same area.

The battles come more than eight months after Hamas' war-sparking raids into southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

The Palestinian militants also seized 251 hostages during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks. Of these, 116 remain in Gaza, although the army says 41 of them are dead.

In response, Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza that has left at least 37,202 people dead, also mostly civilians, the Hamas-ruled territory's Health Ministry said.

The International Court of Justice issued in May a binding ruling for Israel to halt any offensive in Rafah and elsewhere that could bring about "the physical destruction" of the Palestinians.

Israel responded that it had not "and will not" engage in such operations against the Palestinians.

Efforts to reach a truce stalled when Israel began ground operations in Rafah, but US President Joe Biden in late May launched a new effort to secure a deal.

On Monday, the United Nations Security Council adopted a US-drafted resolution supporting the plan.

'Close the deal'

While in Qatar's capital Doha on Wednesday for the last stop of a tour to promote Biden's ceasefire roadmap, Blinken said the US would work with regional partners to "close the deal."

Hamas responded to mediators Qatar and Egypt on Tuesday night. Blinken said some of its proposed amendments "are workable and some are not."

A senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, said the group sought "a permanent ceasefire and complete withdrawal" of Israeli troops from Gaza — demands repeatedly rejected by Israel.

The plan includes a six-week ceasefire, a hostage-prisoner exchange and Gaza's reconstruction.

It would be the first truce since a weeklong November pause in fighting that saw hostages freed and Palestinians released from Israeli jails.

Blinken said Israel was behind the plan, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government has far-right members strongly opposed to the deal, is yet to formally endorse it.

The top American diplomat expressed hopes that gaps could be closed.

"We have to see... over the course of the coming days whether those gaps are bridgeable," he said.

UN investigation

In a statement early on Thursday, Hamas urged Blinken to put "direct pressure" on Israel.

"He continues to talk about Israel's agreement of the latest (ceasefire) proposal, but we have not heard any Israeli official speak out on this," it said.

The statement came after a UN investigation concluded on Wednesday that Israel had committed crimes against humanity during the Gaza war, while Israeli and Palestinian armed groups had both committed war crimes.

The independent Commission of Inquiry's report is the first in-depth investigation by UN experts into Gaza's bloodiest-ever war.

Israel's Foreign Ministry on Thursday dismissed the report as "biased and tainted by a distinct anti-Israeli agenda."

The war has led to widespread destruction of homes and other infrastructure, with hospitals out of service and the UN warning of famine.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said more than 8,000 children aged younger than 5 had been treated for acute malnutrition in Gaza, where only two stabilization centers for severely malnourished patients currently operate.

"Despite reports of increased delivery of food, there is currently no evidence that those who need it most are receiving sufficient quantity and quality of food," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.