Fierce fighting rages between the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas and the Israeli forces as Israeli tanks advance into Rafah in the southern parts of the Gaza Strip.

Media reports said on Thursday that the fighting is taking place in western and central Rafah, Gaza's last refuge. 

The reports added that some of the heaviest clashes are underway at the outskirts of al-Shaboura refugee camp.

Israel unleashed a genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, which has so far killed at least 37,396 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 85,523 others.

Seven months later, the occupying regime began a ground offensive in Rafah, home to displaced Palestinians who had fled from the rest of Gaza amid the bloody Israeli onslaught.

On Wednesday, eight Palestinians were killed in Rafah's al-Mawasi area and many families fled north in panic after Israeli tanks, backed by warplanes and drones, advanced deeper into the city.

Israeli troops blew up several homes in western Rafah, residents said, adding that heavy shelling and gunfire hit the tents of displaced families in al-Mawasi.

“Another night of horror in Rafah. They (the Israeli forces) opened fire from planes, drones and tanks on the western areas to cover for their invasion,” a Rafah resident told Reuters.

“Bullets and shells landed in the al-Mawasi area near where people slept, killing and wounding many.”

Meanwhile, medics said an Israeli air raid killed four Palestinians, including a child, at a house in the Gaza City suburb of Sheikh Radwan.

The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad resistance groups said their fighters had battled the occupation forces with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs, and have in some areas detonated pre-planted explosive devices against them.