Hamas continues its attacks against Israeli forces in the main cities of the Gaza Strip

Palestinian gunmen continued on Sunday attacks against Israeli forces in the two main cities of Gaza Stripweeks after they were overrun by soldiers and tanks, in a sign that Hamas still retains some control ahead of a possible ceasefire.

Nearly four months after war broke out following the Palestinian militant group's bloody attack on Israel, fighting continues in Gaza City, in the north of the heavily populated enclave, and Khan Younis in the south.

Israel said last week it was now focusing mainly on Rafah, on the southern border with Egypt, increasing pressure on hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians who fled their homes from other parts of the enclave and have taken refuge there.

The push to Rafah is also worrying Cairo, which has said it will not accept any influx of Palestinian refugees in what it says is an effort to prevent any permanent loss of property.

An Israeli official told Reuters, however, that the army would coordinate with Egypt, and is seeking ways to remove most of the displaced people to the northwest, before any ground sweep in Rafah.

Palestinians reported Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes there, one of which killed two girls in a house.

As the crowd mourned the two children, a relative, Mohammed Qaloub, said the airstrike hit a room full of women and children in Rafah's al-Salam neighborhood.

“There is no safe place in Gaza, from wire fence to wire fence (the border from north to south), there is no safe place”he told Reuters.

After conducting partial withdrawals from Gaza City in recent weeks that allowed some residents to return and begin searching through the rubble, Israeli forces are carrying out raids. Before today's strike, airstrikes destroyed several high-rise buildings, including a residential complex that had been financed by Egypt.

The Israeli military said it killed seven Hamas militants in northern Gaza and seized weapons. Israel's military radio said soldiers in the area were trying to infiltrate two Hamas bunkers, a mission it said could take two weeks amid resistance from the Islamist group.

“Gaza city is being eliminated”a resident told Reuters on condition of anonymity. “The (Israeli) withdrawal was a ruse”.

In Khan Younis, overnight Israeli shelling killed three Palestinians, according to medical sources. Residents reported fierce street fighting in the western and southern areas of the city, where Israel said a soldier was killed in a Palestinian attack on Saturday.

Soldiers in Khan Yunis captured a compound of her commander Hamas and killed several gunmen as well as a Palestinian wielding a grenade and a knife, the army said.

The Israel announced last week the “dismantling” of Hamas in Khan Younis. An Israeli official later told Reuters that, of the four Hamas battalions originally stationed there, only one remained.

Health authorities in Gaza, which do not separate fighters and civilians in their tally, said today that at least 27,300 Palestinians have been confirmed killed since the war began. They say that 70% of them were women and children.

Thousands more are feared lost in the rubble. Munir al-Bours, director of Gaza's health ministry, said dozens of decomposing bodies were recovered from northern areas from which Israeli forces withdrew.

Israel says it has killed around 10,000 militants in its campaign to eliminate Hamas since the October 7 attack by the group, which has vowed to destroy Israel. In its bloody attack, 1,200 people were killed and 253 were taken hostage, according to Israeli accounts.

More than 130 hostages remain in Gaza and their possible release by Hamas is one of the issues discussed in negotiations with Egyptian and Qatari mediators, backed by the United States, to reach a truce.

Hamas calls for an end to the war. Israel rejects this but is open to a temporary truce.