Tel Aviv/Gaza, 5 November 2023 (dpa/MIA) — Fighters from the Palestinian extremist group Hamas have attacked Israeli soldiers in the south of the Gaza Strip, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), five weeks into the war.

The Jerusalem Post reported that early on Sunday morning Hamas militants fired anti-tank missiles at Israeli troops in the southern Gaza Strip near the border with Israel. The Israeli military returned fire, the report said.

Israeli ground troops have set their sights on the head of Hamas as they advance in the sealed-off coastal area, according to The Times of Israel.

The paper quoted Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant as saying that Israeli troops are "dismantling one Hamas battalion after another" and would "eliminate" Hamas chief Yehya al-Sinwar.

"We will find Yehya Sinwar and eliminate him. If the residents of Gaza get there before we do, it will shorten the war," Gallant said, according to the report.

Last weekend, the IDF launched a new phase in the war against Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, and expanded its operations on the ground.

Israel declared its plans to wipe out Hamas after its militants went on a brutal rampage through Israeli towns bordering Gaza, killing 1,400 people, many of them civilians, and taking 249 others hostage on October 7.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry says 9,488 people have died in Gaza since the war started. Israel has largely sealed off Gaza and halted supplies of electricity, drinking water, fuel and food, while pounding the coastal area on the Mediterranean Sea with retaliatory airstrikes ever since October 7.

The IDF has again warned civilians to flee to the southern end of the Gaza Strip. According to the army, at least 700,000 people have already done so.

The spokesman called on people to take the next opportunity to head south for their own safety.

The IDF would allow traffic on a southbound road between 10 am and 2 pm (0800 GMT and 1200 GMT), an Israeli army spokesman wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday evening. The army also published a map showing the designated road.

"If you care about yourself and your loved ones, head south according to our instructions," the post said in Arabic.

However there have been numerous reports of fleeing civilians being hit in airstrikes in parts of the Gaza Strip where the IDF had told them they would be safe.

The United Nations estimates there are 1.4 million internally displaced persons in the Gaza Strip. In total, more than 2.2 million people live in the densely populated Gaza Strip.