Israel pummels Gaza as troops push into central Rafah

RAFAH, May 31 (AFP/Xinhua): Israeli forces on Friday struck targets across the Gaza Strip, with witnesses reporting air raids around the southern city of Rafah, the latest focus of the nearly eight-month war.
Israel launched its military incursion into Rafah in early May despite international objections over the safety of civilians sheltering in the city on Gaza's border with Egypt.
Witnesses said Friday Israeli strikes hit the Rafah area as well as central Gaza's Nuseirat, and an AFP correspondent reported intense bombardment in the north.
Strikes on two separate locations killed a total of 11 people overnight, medical sources at a hospital in Deir al-Balah and the Nuseirat refugee camp reported.
Meanwhile, Hamas announced on Thursday that it has informed mediators of its readiness to reach a "full agreement," including a comprehensive hostages-prisoners exchange deal, if Israel stops its war in the Gaza Strip, according to a statement from the Gaza-ruling Palestinian faction.
Hamas said it has showed flexibility and positivity in response to the efforts of the mediators throughout all previous indirect negotiating rounds, but Israel used these negotiations "as a cover for the continuation of aggression" against the Palestinian people, citing military operations in Rafah and seizure of the crossing as evidence.
Hamas and other Palestinian factions will not accept to be part of this policy by continuing negotiations in light of "aggression, killing, siege, starvation and genocide of our people," it added.
Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported on Tuesday that Israel had handed over a document with the Israeli proposal to Qatar and Egypt to resume negotiations for the exchange of detainees with Hamas and a ceasefire in Gaza.