Israel's Gaza push continues, nears 100 days of war

Israel says it targets Gaza Strip militants and does all it can to minimise harm to non-combatants. (EPA PHOTO)

Israel has kept up bombardments in the Gaza Strip as its deadly war on the enclave's Hamas rulers approaches 100 days with no end in sight.

In the southern city of Rafah an Israeli air strike on a house sheltering two displaced families killed 10 people, the Gaza health ministry said.

Holding up a photo of a dead girl with a piece of bread in her hand, Bassem Arafeh, a relative, said the families in Rafah had been eating dinner when the house was struck on Friday night.

"This child died while she was hungry, while she was eating a piece of bread with nothing on it, where is the International Criminal Court to see how the children die?" Arafeh said. 

"Where are the Muslims... and the world leaders?"

Israel says it targets militants and does all it can to minimise harm to non-combatants as it wages urban warfare against Hamas in the densely populated Palestinian enclave.

But the scale of the killing in Gaza and the dire humanitarian situation has shocked world opinion and fuelled growing calls for a ceasefire.

The Israeli military said on Saturday its forces had killed numerous militants in the southern area of Khan Younis and in the central Gaza Strip. 

People look at the destruction after an Israeli strike in Kahan Younis
The dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip has fuelled international calls for a ceasefire.

It said it was looking into the reported strike in Rafah.

Hamas said its fighters fired at an Israeli helicopter in southern Gaza's Khan Younis.

In the central Gaza Strip, residents reported intense gunbattles and tank shelling and Israeli air strikes in al-Bureij, al-Nusseirat and al-Maghazi, areas housing refugees and  descendants of the 1948 war.

The Israeli military said it targeted militants and a Hamas command centre in those areas. 

Israeli forces were also seen on the edge of Deir al-Balah, a town to the west where Israel had been urging residents to shelter.

Witnesses said a bus was hit nearby by an Israeli missile. 

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

More than 20 fatalities were reported in northern Gaza, Beit Lahiya and in the Daraj neighbourhood in Gaza City.

Israel has announced a new phase in combat, withdrawing some forces from northern Gaza where they deployed three weeks after the militants rampaged through southern Israel on October 7 in an attack that sparked the war that will mark 100 days on Sunday.

Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said Israeli strikes killed 135 Palestinians and wounded 312 in the past 24 hours. 

In total, he said 23,843 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed since October 7.

Israeli helicopter
Hamas says its fighters have fired at an Israeli helicopter in southern Gaza's Khan Younis.

Israel says it has killed at least 8000 fighters and that it has no choice but to end Hamas rule in Gaza after the militants, who are sworn to Israel's destruction, killed 1200 people, mainly civilians, and took 240 hostages.

At Nasser Hospital, a handful of doctors said they were struggling in a now "collapsed" healthcare system.

Reuters footage showed patients lying on stretchers on the floor inside corridors and doctors using their phone flashlights to examine patients' eyes.

"Most of the medical supplies in the ICU are missing," doctor Mohammad al-Qidra said.

"We don't have empty beds, no treatments. Most of the medicines inside the emergency room are not enough for patients. We are trying to find alternatives."

Hospital wards are being shared by many of the displaced.

"When we ask for medicine, they tell us they don't have it, and the situation is bad. We are here in cold and windy weather," said Mahmoud Jaber, who has been displaced from his home in Gaza City.

Most of Gaza's population of 2.3 million has been displaced.

"Sheikh Zayed City was one of the beautiful cities of Gaza before the war, it used to house thousands of people, but it is now destroyed," said Mahmoud Salama, a freelance Palestinian journalist touring the northern town after Israeli tanks had retreated. 

"The reality is more difficult than the footage."

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