Tel Aviv/Gaza, 5 December 2023 (dpa/MIA) — The Israeli military said that Tuesday was the most "intense day" of fighting in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of its ground offensive, as the army advanced into the centre of Khan Younis, the largest city in the south of the besieged territory.

 

Major General Yaron Finkelman said troops were in "the heart of" Khan Younis, an area Israel had for weeks said would be out of harm's way for those fleeing from the north of Gaza, where whole neighbourhoods now lie in ruins.

 

Aid groups said there were essentially no safe places left for Gazans to escape Israel's air and ground assault and warned that hospitals and shelters in the south were under immense strain.

 

Finkelman, who leads the Southern Command, said Israeli troops were also carrying out operations against militant positions in the Jabalia refugee camp and the Shejaiya neighbourhood, both at the northern end of the strip.

 

"We are in the most intense day since the beginning of the ground operation - in terms of terrorists killed, the number of firefights, and the use of firepower from the land and air," he said.

 

Herzi Halevi, chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), said later that troops were encircling all of Khan Younis and that a new "phase" of the ground offensive to eliminate Hamas had commenced.

 

The IDF launched its large-scale invasion inside the Gaza Strip on October 27.

 

Halevi said the army was making "great efforts to minimize the damage to the civilian population" as it goes after strongholds of Hamas, the Islamist militant group that ruled Gaza and launched the October 7 attack on Israel that left some 1,200 people dead and 240 held hostage.

 

Halevi, in explaining the vast destruction wrought by Israel, said "forces find in nearly every home weapons, terrorists."

 

The number of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip has risen to 16,248, the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry said on Tuesday. More than 42,000 people have been injured.

 

Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, described the situation in Gaza "a total failure of our shared humanity."

 

"Tens of thousands live on the streets of southern Gaza, where, under bombardment, they are forced to improvise basic shelters from whatever they can get hold of," he said.

 

He noted that 1.9 million people, or about 80% population, have been displaced and nearly two in three homes are damaged or destroyed.

 

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said it has maxed out its ability to care for hundreds of thousands of newly displaced civilians amid the Israeli military's push south.

 

Richard Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization's representative for Gaza, said a child wad dying every 10 minutes.

 

Peeperkorn, speaking from Rafah on the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt, described "horror scenes" in the few remaining hospitals, where there were twice as many patients as beds and severely injured patients were lying untreated on the floor.

 

In Israel, the military was again questioned about the plight of the hostages taken by Gaza militants on October 7.

 

Israel said it now counts 138 hostages being held militants, revising the number up by one. The army said an individual who had been listed as unaccounted for is now believed to be among the hostages.

 

According to Israeli figures, around 240 people were kidnapped in the attack on border towns in Israel. A total of 105 were recently released as part of a deal between the Israeli government and Hamas. In exchange, Israel released 240 Palestinian prisoners.

 

Mediation efforts to revive the truce and facilitate further exchanges are ongoing, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said on Tuesday.

 

Meanwhile, there were renewed rocket alerts on the Israeli side of the border, as well as in Tel Aviv and the centre of the country. The Israeli news website ynet reported a total of 15 rockets had been fired towards the greater Tel Aviv area.

 

A rocket hit a house in the coastal Israeli city of Ashkelon, slightly injuring two people, according to the rescue service.

 

The Lebanese army said one of its soldier was killed and three others were wounded when an Israeli shell hit their position in southern Lebanon.

 

It is the first army death since cross-border hostilities began in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

 

Hamas and Hezbollah are both backed by Iran and have both vowed to destroy Israel. Hezbollah, which is a Shia Islamist political party in Lebanon as well as a militant group, is considered more influential and powerful.