Israel sharply ramps up Gaza strikes

The Israeli army continued its military offensive against Hamas in Gaza on Friday. Hundreds of militants have been killed, and others have been captured.

The Israeli military said it had struck more than 450 targets in Gaza from land, sea and air over the past 24 hours - the most since a truce collapsed last week and around double the daily figures typically reported since then.

Residents and the Israeli military both reported intensified fighting in both northern areas, where Israel had previously said its troops had largely completed their tasks last month, as well as in the south where they launched a new assault this week.

Israel launched its campaign to annihilate the Hamas group that rules Gaza after Hamas fighters went on a rampage through Israeli towns on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and seizing more than 240 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, the vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes, many forced to flee three or four times, with only the belongings they can carry.

With the fighting now extended across both halves of the Gaza Strip at the same time, residents say it has become almost impossible to find refuge. Israel says it is providing more detail than ever about which areas are safe and how to reach them, and blames Hamas for harm that befalls civilians by operating among them, which Hamas denies.

Hamas reported the most intense clashes with Israeli forces were taking place in the north in Gaza City's Shejaia district, as well as in the south in Khan Younis, where Israelis reached the heart of the enclave's second-biggest city on Wednesday.

The Israeli military's Arabic-language spokesman posted to social media that troops were operating "forcefully against Hamas and terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, especially in the Khan Younis area and the northern Strip".

He said all residents must leave the Jabaliya and Zeitoun areas in the north, as well as Shejaia and the old city in Gaza City. In the south, residents seeking shelter should head along the coast, with the main north-south route through the spine of the enclave now "a battlefield", he said.

Thomas White, Gaza head of UNRWA, the U.N. aid agency for Palestinians, wrote on X: "Civil order is breaking down in Gaza - the streets feel wild, particularly after dark - some aid convoys are being looted and UN vehicles stoned. Society is on the brink of full-blown collapse."