Israeli forces take control of vital Rafah crossing from Gaza into Egypt

The Israeli military took control of the vital Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Tuesday, pushing into the southern Gazan town after a night of air strikes and as prospects for a ceasefire deal hung in the balance.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas said late on Monday it had agreed to a ceasefire proposal from mediators seven months into the war that has pushed more than a million Gazans into the south of the enclave.

Israel said the terms did not meet its demands and launched a military operation in Rafah.

Israeli tanks and planes pounded several areas and houses in Rafah overnight, killing 20 Palestinians and wounding several others in strikes that hit at least four houses, Palestinian health officials said.

"The Israeli occupation has sentenced the residents of the Strip to death after closure of the Rafah border crossing," said Hisham Edwan, spokesperson for the Gaza Border Crossing Authority. 

Israel has been threatening to launch a major incursion in Rafah, which it says harbours thousands of Hamas fighters and potentially dozens of hostages. Victory is impossible without taking Rafah, it says.

A Gaza border authority spokesperson told Reuters the Rafah crossing, a major route for aid into the devastated enclave, was closed because of the presence of Israeli tanks. Israel's Army Radio had earlier announced its forces were there.

The United States has been pressing Israel not to launch a military campaign in Rafah until it had drawn up a humanitarian plan for the Palestinians sheltering there, which Washington says it has yet to see.

Israel said the vast majority of people had been evacuated from the area of military operations.

Instructed by Arabic text messages, phone calls and flyers to move to what the Israeli military called an "expanded humanitarian zone" around 20 kilometres away, some Palestinian families began trundling away in chilly spring rain.

Some piled children and possessions onto donkey carts, while others left by pick-up truck or on foot through muddy streets.

As families dismantled tents and folded belongings, Abdullah Al-Najar said this was the fourth time he had been displaced since the fighting began seven months ago.

"God knows where we will go now. We have not decided yet."

Hamas said in a brief statement that its chief, Ismail Haniyeh, had informed Qatari and Egyptian mediators the group accepted their proposal for a ceasefire.