Israel continued to bombard the Gaza Strip and battled Hamas as mediators called on both sides to agree to a truce and hostage release deal outlined by US President Joe Biden, AFP reports.

Heavy fighting flared in Gaza’s far-southern Rafah city, where Israel sent tanks and troops in early May, ignoring concerns for displaced civilians there.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said on Sunday all 36 of its shelters in Rafah “are now empty”, after at least a million people have fled the city.

Witnesses said Israeli Apache helicopters struck central Rafah on Sunday, also reporting clashes there and air raids and shelling in other parts of the city. The Palestinian Red Crescent said it was “very difficult” to access Rafah because of the Israeli bombardment.

In the besieged territory’s north, Israeli helicopters fired at Gaza City’s Zeitun and Sabra areas, AFP reporters said. A hospital medic said three people were killed when an air strike hit a family apartment in Gaza City’s Daraj district.

And in central Gaza, shelling hit areas of Deir al-Balah and the Bureij and Nuseirat refugee camps, witnesses said.