Israel ground forces, jets raid central Gaza amid UN calls for 'uninterrupted' aid

The UN on Friday warned that “many more people will die” in Gaza due to catastrophic shortages caused by Israel's endless bombardment in response to Hamas' attack this month.

The health ministry in Gaza, ruled by Hamas, reported on Friday that 7,326 individuals have lost their lives in the Palestinian territory since the outbreak of conflict with Israel on October 7.

This recent death toll includes 3,038 children, as stated by the ministry, and 18,967 people have been injured throughout Gaza.

As the conflict raged into its 21st day, the Israeli army, backed by fighter jets and drones, is preparing for a ground offensive, carrying out a land incursion into the Gaza Strip.

As the US warns Iran against escalation and strikes facilities in Syria it claims were utilised by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and others, concerns about the conflict's broader effects are becoming more pressing.

On October 7, throngs of Hamas gunmen poured from Gaza into Israel, killing 1,400 people and kidnapping 224 more, according to Israeli officials.

In heavy retaliatory Israeli air and artillery strikes, more than 7,000 Palestinians have been martyred in the Gaza Strip, including over 3,000 children, according to the Gaza health ministry, leading to growing calls for protection of innocents caught up in the conflict.

"People in Gaza are dying, they are not only dying from bombs and strikes, soon many more will die from the consequences of (the) siege imposed on the Gaza Strip," Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), told reporters in Jerusalem.

Israel has cut supplies of food, water and power to Gaza, notably blocking all deliveries of fuel saying it would be exploited by Hamas to manufacture weapons and explosives.

"Basic services are crumbling, medicine is running out, food and water are running out, the streets of Gaza have started overflowing with sewage," he said of the devastated territory where around 45% of all housing has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN which cited local authorities.

'Uninterrupted aid flow'

Aid agencies estimate that only 74 trucks have crossed the Rafah border with Egypt since the weekend, a small fraction of the total needed for the conflict, as an average of 500 trucks entered Gaza daily before the conflict, AFP reported.

Gaza needed a "meaningful and uninterrupted aid flow" and a "humanitarian ceasefire to ensure this aid reaches those in need", Lazzarini said, echoing a similar call by European Union leaders.

European Union (EU) leaders had on Thursday evening demanded "continued, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access and aid to reach those in need through all necessary measures including humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs".

Between the bombardments and the fuel shortages, 12 of Gaza's 35 hospitals have been forced to close, and UNRWA said it has had to "significantly reduce its operations".

"What needs more support? Bakeries, water stations, life support machines in a hospital — all this needs fuel to function," the head of the agency said on Friday.

The agency has so far had 57 staff killed since the war began, Lazzarini told journalists.

Israeli strikes kill 50 hostages

With tens of thousands of Israeli troops massed along the Gaza border ahead of a widely expected ground offensive, the army said its forces had staged a ground incursion into central Gaza.

"We carried out a ground operation in central Gaza... as part of preparations for the coming stages of the war," army spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters, saying the number of hostages held by Hamas was now confirmed to be 229.

Black-and-white footage released by the military showed a column of armoured vehicles as a thick cloud of dust billowed into the night sky after the strikes.

Tanks and infantry had staged a similar raid targeting Hamas in northern Gaza the previous night, the army said.

Israel has won staunch backing from allies including the US for its military action in Gaza, demanding Hamas release the more than 220 hostages it snatched on October 7 that include a mix of Israelis, foreigners and dual nationals.

The fate of the hostages remains a complicating factor for Israel's planned ground operation.

Hamas's armed wing said Thursday that "almost 50" hostages had been killed in the bombardments, in a claim that could not be independently verified.

'Wherever we go, we will die'

Inside Gaza, the punishing strikes have left people "with nothing but impossible choices", said Lynne Hastings, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory.

Israel has repeatedly urged civilians in northern Gaza to move south for their safety, but strikes have also hit southern areas and evacuation routes, with UN figures showing some 1.4 million people — more than half of Gaza's population — have been displaced.

Heading the Israeli warnings, Rahma Saqallah fled her Gaza City home to go south with her family. But after strikes killed her husband and three of her children, she turned round to go back.

"Wherever we go, we will die," she told AFP before leaving the southern town of Khan Yunis with her surviving child. "They told us to leave for the south and then they killed us (here)."

Meanwhile, concern is growing over the regional fallout from the conflict, with Egypt's army saying Friday that six people were lightly injured when an "unidentified drone fell" on a town on the border with Israel.

The army said the drone crashed into "a building next to Taba hospital", in the Red Sea town of the same name just across the border from the Israeli resort of Eilat.

Egypt's AlQahera News television had said "a rocket" hit Taba, with witnesses saying that it struck a hospital annexe in the town, which lies 200 kilometres (124 miles) south of Egypt's border with Gaza, AFP reported.