Israel on Saturday struck one of the tallest residential towers in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, ratcheting up pressure on the last part of the enclave it has yet to invade and is home to more than a million displaced Palestinians, Reuters and News reported. ro.

The attack damaged a 12-story building located about 500 meters from the border with Egypt. Dozens of families were left homeless, although, according to residents, there were no victims. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident.

One of the tower’s 300 tenants told Reuters that Israel gave them 30 minutes’ notice to leave the building at night. “People got scared, ran down the stairs, some fell, there was chaos. People left their belongings and money behind,” Mohammad Al-Nabris said, adding that a friend’s pregnant wife was among those stumbling down the stairs during the panicked evacuation.

The strike on the Rafah Tower could be a sign of an imminent Israeli invasion, a Palestinian official from Fatah, a party that supports the Palestinian Authority, said.

Five months after Israel began its relentless air and ground assault on Gaza, health authorities say nearly 31,000 Palestinians have been killed, more than 72,500 wounded and thousands trapped under rubble. The offensive plunged the Palestinian territory, already suffering from a 17-year blockade imposed by Israel, into a humanitarian disaster. Much of the territory has been reduced to ruins, most of the 2.3 million residents have been displaced, and the UN has warned of the risk of disease and starvation.

Three Palestinian children died of dehydration and malnutrition at Al-Shifa Hospital in the north of the country overnight, said Ashraf Al-Kidra, spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry. Qidra said there are 23 Palestinians who have died of similar causes over a period of almost 10 days.

On the other hand, talks on a ceasefire and the release of 134 hostages still in Gaza appeared to be stalling ahead of the expected deadline for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins around March 10. A Hamas source told Reuters it was “unlikely” that a delegation from the group would visit Cairo again at the weekend for talks. Hamas blamed the lack of progress on Israel, which has so far refused to provide guarantees or commitments to end the war or withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip.

In a speech to mark Egypt’s Martyrs and Veterans Day on Saturday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip could exceed $90 billion.

In a statement summarizing operations in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the Israeli military said it had arrested, seized weapons and killed more than 30 fighters in Khan Yunis, including in the Hamad district of central Gaza and Beit Hanoun in the north.

The Gaza Ministry of Health reported that at least 82 people were killed as a result of Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip in the past day.