Israel bombs UAE field hospital in Gaza, injuring Emirati guard

Israeli bombing hit a UAE field hospital in the southern city of Rafah in the devastated Gaza Strip on Tuesday, injuring two people.

Three projectiles fell on the medical facility, with an Emirati security guard among the injured, Arabi21 reported.

Israel also bombed other buildings in central Rafah, where most of the Gaza Strip's population have taken refuge.

On Tuesday, Israel launched a ground assault on the city, taking control of Rafah's border with Egypt and sparking fears of a humanitarian crisis.

"The dire warnings of aid groups have materialised: Israeli forces have launched a ground incursion into eastern Rafah and have taken control of the Palestinian side of the border crossing," Bob Kitchen, vice president of emergencies at the International Rescue Committee (IRC), said in a Tuesday press release.

Israel has long threatened a full ground invasion of the city, with fears of catastrophic consequences for the civilian population as a result.

"The IRC urgently calls on Israel to halt further violence in Rafah and across the Gaza Strip, and for all parties to agree to an immediate and permanent ceasefire.

"The international community must wield all diplomatic influence at its disposal to bring the parties to an agreement and halt the humanitarian tragedy underway in Rafah," the statement added.

Hamas said on Monday that it had agreed to a truce deal proposed by mediators Egypt and Qatar.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office called the proposal "far from Israel's essential demands", but said the government would still dispatch negotiators to the Egyptian capital Cairo.

Talks aimed at agreeing a truce deal resumed in the Cairo on Wednesday "in the presence of all parties", Egyptian media reported.

A senior Hamas official said the latest round of negotiations would be "decisive".

"The resistance insists on the rightful demands of its people and will not give up any of our people's rights," he told the AFP news agency on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak publicly on the negotiations.

The official had previously warned it would be Israel's "last chance" to free scores of Israeli hostages held by Hamas and other Palestinian groups.

Israel's seven-month war on Gaza has so far killed at least 34,844 people, mostly women and children, according to the Palestinian enclave's health ministry.

The war has created immense misery for Palestinian civilians and devastated the Gaza Strip's infrastructure, with hospitals, ambulances and residential buildings coming under attack.

Agencies contributed to this report.