Gaza’s Health Ministry has issued a report that the death toll since the start of the war in October surpassed 25,000.
Palestinian health officials said 178 Palestinians had died in the past 24 hours, making it one of the deadliest days of the war. The Israeli army said one soldier had died as a result of the fighting.
Israeli troops and Hamas militants clashed in several locations, from Jabalia in the north to Khan Younis in the south, where Israeli operations have recently been taking place.
Israeli jets resumed heavy bombardment of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, killing one Palestinian and wounding seven.
Israel said its troops had cleared most of northern Gaza of the Hamas military network and more than 1 million residents of the enclave had moved south to escape the bombardment. But fighting continues in the Jabalia refugee camp and other areas around Gaza City.
Some 85 per cent of the territory’s population has been displaced from their homes, with thousands sheltering in squalid conditions in UN-run camps in the southern part of the coastal enclave.
The UN said there was “famine” in Gaza, with one in four of the 2.3 million residents experiencing acute hunger.
Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas after militants stormed into Israel on 7 October and wreaked havoc in southern towns and bases, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Israeli strikes have killed 25,105 Palestinians – many of them women and children – and injured 62,681 since 7 October.
