At least 22 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, including six women and five children, according to Palestinian officials.

Israel has regularly carried out airstrikes on Rafah since the start of the war and has announced a ground offensive, saying Rafah is the last major stronghold of Hamas in the coastal enclave. More than a million Palestinians have sought refuge in the city on the Egyptian border. At the same time, the United States and other countries have urged Israel not to go ahead with the ground offensive, fearing a humanitarian disaster.

The US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken begins on Monday his seventh diplomatic mission to the Middle East since the Israel-Hamas war began six months ago.

Blinken’s visit, which includes Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel on Tuesday and Wednesday, comes amid concerns about the spreading conflict in the Middle East, with the prospect of a meaningful Israeli-Saudi rapprochement central to the talks. Arabia, the thorn in which is Israel’s refusal to consider one of Saudi Arabia’s main conditions for normalizing relations: the creation of a Palestinian state.