Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Jacob Phillips

Israel expands ground offensive into central Gaza refugee camps as it warns war will go on for months

The Israeli military has expanded its ground offensive into densely populated refugee camps in Gaza and has warned the war with Hamas will go on for months.

Residents reported shelling and airstrikes in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, the southern city of Khan Younis and the southern town of Rafah, where tens of thousands have sought refuge in recent weeks. 

Israeli forces pounded central Gaza by land, sea and air on Wednesday and Palestinian authorities reported dozens more deaths, including 20 in one attack.

Israeli forces also raided a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, killing at least six Palestinians, Palestinian health authorities said Wednesday. 

Israel's military chief Herzi Halevi said on Tuesday the war would last many months despite international calls for a ceasefire amid a humanitarian crisis.

He said there were “no shortcuts in dismantling a terrorist organisation.”

A Gaza health ministry statement said an Israeli air strike killed 20 Palestinians on Wednesday near the Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. 

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

A telecommunications outage in much of the enclave hindered efforts to reach Palestinian casualties overnight but was gradually coming back online at mid-morning.

In central Gaza's Al-Maghazi district, five Palestinians were killed in one air strike, medics said, while to the north in Gaza City health officials said the bodies of seven Palestinians killed overnight arrived at Al Shifa Hospital.

Residents also reported heavy fighting east and north of the Al-Bureij district and in the nearby village of Juhr Ad-Deek, where they said Israeli tanks are stationed.

Israel's military on Wednesday reported three more soldiers killed in action in Gaza, bringing total military losses in the enclave since ground operations began on October 20 to 166.

The war erupted after Hamas killed 1,200 people and captured 240 hostages in a cross-border rampage on October 7, the deadliest day in Israel's history. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has responded with an assault that has laid much of Hamas-ruled Gaza to waste.

The Gaza health ministry said Israeli forces had killed 195 Palestinians and wounded 325 in the past 24 hours, bringing the recorded toll to 21,110 killed and 55,243 wounded in Israeli attacks in the coastal Palestinian territory since October 7.

Nearly all the enclave's 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes, many several times.

Meanwhile in Tel Aviv, a huge clock counted the time elapsed since Hamas took the hostages as families kept up their campaign for their loved ones to be freed.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.