U.S. urges Israel to let more fuel, aid reach Gaza as UN warns situation deteriorating

Israel needs to do more to allow fuel and other aid into Gaza, the U.S.said on Tuesday as Israel's offensive against Hamas in southern areas of the Palestinian enclave intensified.

"The level of assistance that's getting in is not sufficient," U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a press briefing. "It needs to go up, and we've made that clear to the government of Israel."

On Monday, 100 humanitarian aid trucks and about 69,000 litres of fuel were delivered to Gaza from Egypt, the United Nations said, about the same as Sunday.

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"This is well below the daily average of 170 trucks and 110,000 litres of fuel that had entered during the humanitarian pause that took place between 24 and 30 November," UNspokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Tuesday.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on his third trip to the Middle East since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel from Gaza, last week pressed the Israeli government to increase the flow of aid and to minimize civilian harm in its offensive against Hamas.

Southern Gaza under siege

Israeli forces stormed southern Gaza's main city on Tuesday in what they called the most intense day of combat in five weeks of ground operations against Hamas militants.Hospitals struggled to cope with scores of Palestinian dead and wounded.

In what appeared to be the biggest ground assault in Gaza since a truce with Hamas unravelled last week, Israel said its troops who were backed by warplanes had reached the heart of Khan Younis and were surrounding the city.

The Israelis, who largely seized Gaza's northern half last month before pausing for the week-long truce, believe the Hamas commanders they aim to eliminate are holed up in part of a vast underground tunnel network in the territory.

Israel unleashed its campaign in retribution for the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas fighters who rampaged through Israeli towns, killing 1,200 people and seizing 240 hostages, according to Israel's tally.

WATCH |Relatives of Israeli hostages visit family home:

Relatives of Israeli hostages visit family home, holding onto hopes they're still alive somewhere

10 months ago

Duration 1:00

Jimmy Miller and Yosi Shnaider are cousins of Shiri Bibas, who was kidnapped by Hamas along with her husband and two children. Visiting the Bibas home for the first time since Oct. 7, the cousins saw the wreckage left by the violence, though they remain hopeful the Bibas family is still alive in captivity. Hamas has stated Shiri Bibas and her two children were killed during an Israeli airstrike, but the Israeli military said the statement has not yet been verified.

Hamas's media office said Tuesday at least 16,248 people, including 7,112 children and 4,885 women, had been killed in Gaza by Israeli military action since Oct. 7. Thousands more are missing and feared buried under rubble.

It was not immediately possible to verify the media office's figures with the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, which is deemed reliable by the United Nations.

Israel says the blame for civilian casualties largely falls on Hamas fighters for operating in residential areas, including from underground tunnels that can be destroyed only with huge bombs. Hamas denies using human shields.

No safe places in Gaza, says UN

Israeli bombardments have driven 80 per centof Gaza's 2.3 million residents from their homes, most fleeing south. Crowded southern areas are now sheltering triple their usual population.

Dujarric, the UN spokesperson, quoted Lynn Hastings, the UNhumanitarian co-ordinator in the Palestinian territories, saying "shelters have no capacity, the health system is on its knees, and there is a lack of clean drinking water, no proper sanitation and poor nutrition."

Dujarricreiterated that there are no safe places in Gaza and that "those places that fly the UNflag are not safe either."

WATCH |'There is no safe place,' Palestinians lament:

Fear in southern Gaza: 'There is no safe place'

10 months ago

Duration 0:48

People staying in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, are scrambling to find safety as the war between Israel and Hamas rages on.

Hastings, a Canadian, has drawn the ire of Israeli officials, who accuse her of being anti-Israel. The country's foreign affairs minister announced on social mediaTuesday that Hastings's Israeli visa has been revoked.

At Khan Younis's Nasser Hospital, the wounded arrived by ambulance, car, flatbed truck and donkey cart after what survivors described as a strike that hit a school being used as a shelter for the displaced.

Inside a ward, almost every inch of floor space was taken up by the wounded, medics hurrying from patient to patient while relatives wailed.

Two young girls were being treated, still covered in dust from the collapse of the house that had buried their family.

"My parents are under the rubble," sobbed one. "I want my mum, I want my mum, I want my family.

Since the truce collapsed, Israel has been posting an online map to tell Gazans which parts of the enclave to evacuate. Marked on Monday was the eastern quarter of Khan Younis, home to hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom took flight on foot.

Gazans say there is no safe place, with remaining towns and shelters already overwhelmedand Israel continuing to bomb the areas where it is telling people to go.

Israel wants security control over Gaza, says PM

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that the military would have to retain open-ended security control over the Gaza Strip long after the war against Hamas ends.

His comments suggested a renewed direct Israeli occupation of Gaza, something the United States says it opposes.

Netanyahu said only the Israeli military can ensure Gaza remains demilitarized. "No international force can be responsible for this," he said at a news conference. "I'm not ready to close my eyes and accept any other arrangement."