Three Palestinians were killed and five others wounded in two separate Israeli airstrikes on the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, medics and witnesses said early Sunday.
Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman for health ministry in Gaza, told reporters that two brothers were killed and their third one was seriously injured in an airstrike on their house in the town.
He added that a 65-year-old man was killed and four others wounded in another Israeli airstrike on a house in the town.
The airstrikes on the houses coincided with intensive artillery shelling on northern, eastern and southern Gaza Strip. Medics in southern Gaza said that several people were wounded and then brought to hospitals for treatment.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that it has received dozens of phone calls from the residents asking their urgent help.
Meanwhile, Islamic Hamas movement said in an emailed press statement that the movement's chief Khaled Meshaal was invited to Egypt to discuss an Egyptian initiative for a ceasefire with Israel.
Hamas received the Egyptian invitation through mediators, said the statement. But "Hamas repeated its rejection of the Egyptian initiative because it doesn't meet the demands of Palestinian resistance."
Meanwhile, officials close to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua that Abbas will meet in Qatar with Meshaal to discuss the Egyptian initiative for a ceasefire with Israel.