Israeli helicopters continued to strike Gaza’s Rafah, residents said, with Hamas fighters reporting street battles in the southern city after top US diplomat Antony Blinken said a truce was still possible, AFP reports.

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 AFP.

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

Hamas responded to mediators Qatar and Egypt late on Tuesday about the ceasefire proposal. Blinken said some of its proposed amendments “are workable and some are not”.

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

Blinken 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.