A smoke plume erupts during Israeli bombardment over Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Feb 11, 2024. (PHOTO / AFP)

GAZA/JERUSALEM - The death toll in the Israeli army's heavy strikes on the southern city of Rafah and surrounding areas of the Gaza Strip exceeded 100 on Monday, with hundreds of injuries, including women and children, reported the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.

About 40 airstrikes on the Rafah area in the early hours of Monday were conducted by the Israeli army, with intensive ground shelling, according to the report.

The Israeli army said it rescued two hostages after a special forces operation in Rafah. The two were then hospitalized and "in good medical condition“.

According to a readout released by the White House, US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel should not proceed with a military campaign in Rafah without a plan that ensures the safety of the about one million people sheltering there

Israel conducted "a series of strikes on terror targets" in southern Gaza on Monday, the Israeli army said in a statement earlier.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden discussed the ongoing efforts to free hostages held in Gaza and to facilitate more aid into the Palestinian enclave over the phone.

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An Israeli government official told Xinhua that the conversation focused on the hostages, approximately 100 of them are still in Gaza after being kidnapped during Hamas's attack on Oct 7, 2023.

Additionally, the two leaders discussed Israel's declared plan to launch a ground offensive in Rafah, as well as the facilitation of more aid into Gaza.

According to a readout released by the White House, Biden told Netanyahu that Israel should not proceed with a military campaign in Rafah without a plan that ensures the safety of the about one million people sheltering there.

Biden reaffirmed the "shared goal to see Hamas defeated”, according to the statement. He also called for urgent steps to increase the humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza.

The talk was the first time the two leaders have talked since Biden criticized Israel's military campaign last week, describing it as "over the top".

People evacuate a building heavily damaged by Israeli bombardment, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Feb 11, 2024. (PHOTO / AFP)

Since the start of the conflict, about half of the residents there have fled to Rafah, adjacent to Egypt, in search of safety.

The border city, which receives food and medicine aid from foreign countries and UN agencies through the Rafah crossing, is crowded with tents on empty agricultural lands, in schools and along roadsides.

READ MORE: Israel's Netanyahu rejects Hamas offer for truce in Gaza

The death toll of Palestinians from Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip has risen to 28,176 since Oct 7, 2023, with 67,784 others injured, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.