Israeli helicopters continue to strike Rafah, residents said, with fighters reporting street battles in the southern Gazan city as US President Joe Biden called Hamas the “biggest hang-up” to another truce.

According to AFP, tensions were also soaring on Israel’s northern border, with more attacks by Hamas ally Hezbollah targeting military positions and a civilian reported killed in an Israeli strike in Lebanon.

Western areas of Rafah came under heavy fire on Thursday, 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 told AFP.

Hamas said its fighters were battling Israeli troops on the streets of the city near the besieged Gaza Strip’s border with Egypt. In Italy at a G7 summit, Biden called Hamas “the biggest hang-up so far” to a deal on a Gaza truce and hostage release.

“I’ve laid out an approach that has been endorsed by the UN Security Council, by the G7, by the Israelis, and the biggest hang-up so far is Hamas refusing to sign on even though they have submitted something similar,” he told reporters. “Whether or not that comes to fruition remains to be seen,” he said.