Key Points
- Israel says it remains determined to "destroy Hamas" but is open to feedback on reducing harm to civilians in Gaza.
- The UN's top emergency relief official called for fighting to stop and warned the situation in Gaza is "apocalyptic".
- A truce between Israel and Hamas collapsed last week.
Israel expects difficult fighting in the new phase of its war in Gaza but is open to "constructive feedback" on reducing harm to civilians as long as the advice is consistent with its aim of destroying Hamas, a government spokesperson says.
"We're moving ahead with the second stage now. A second stage that is going to be difficult militarily," spokesperson Eylon Levy told reporters on Tuesday.
Israeli forces have begun operating in the southern area of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, where the population has been swollen by around 1 million refugees from northern areas and has faced heavy international pressure, including from Washington, to limit civilian casualties.
"Any constructive feedback that we get, any serious military strategic advice about how to target Hamas while minimizing harm to civilians, we will of course mention," Levy said.
"We are going to continue with our campaign to destroy Hamas, a campaign that the United States sees eye to eye with us about the strategic objectives of this war, that this war cannot end with Hamas still standing," he said.
Levy said Israel was making many efforts to reduce harm to civilians. "We didn't pick the battlefield, Hamas picked the battlefield," he said.
It came as the United Nation's top emergency relief official warned of an "apocalyptic" situation on the ground in Gaza as he called for fighting between Hamas militants and Israeli forces to stop.
"Every time we think things cannot get any more apocalyptic in Gaza, they do," Martin Griffiths wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. "People are being ordered to move again, with little to survive on, forced to make one impossible choice after another".
He said "nowhere is safe in Gaza" and added, "the fighting must stop".
Griffiths' comment echoched those of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who on appealed to Israel to avoid further action that would make the already dire humanitarian situation in Hamas-run Gaza worse, and to spare civilians from more suffering.
"The Secretary-General is extremely alarmed by the resumption of hostilities between Israel and Hamas... For people ordered to evacuate, there is nowhere safe to go and very little to survive on," UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
Asked on Monday about the mounting death toll since , Israel’s closest ally the United States said it was too soon to say whether Israel was doing enough to protect civilians and that it expected Israel not to strike zones it has identified as safe.
Residents and journalists on the ground said the intense Israeli air strikes in the south of the densely populated coastal enclave included areas where Israel had told people to seek shelter.
Israel steps up military operations in Gaza after a sustained truce between Hamas and Israel did not hold further than a week despite diplomatic talks and captives released. Source: Getty, Supplied / Amir Levy
Hamas ally Islamic Jihad's armed wing said its fighters engaged in fierce clashes with Israeli soldiers north and east of Khan Younis, Gaza's main southern city.
Israeli tanks have driven into Gaza across the border and cut off the main north-south route, residents said. The Israeli military said the central road out of Khan Younis to the north "constitutes a battlefield" and was now shut.
Israel on Tuesday said three of its soldiers had died in combat in Gaza on Monday, in what Army Radio described as a day of fierce battles with Hamas fighters. Seventy-eight soldiers have died in Gaza since the start of the military's ground invasion.
Damage in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on Monday following Israeli air strikes. Source: AAP / SOPA Images/Sipa USA
The 7 October attack was a significant escalation in the long-standing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
In eight weeks of warfare, the Gazan health ministry said at least 15,899 Palestinians have been killed.
Hamas is a Palestinian military and political group, which has gained power in the Gaza Strip since winning legislative elections there in 2006. Its stated aim is to establish a Palestinian state, while refusing to recognise Israel's right to exist.
Hamas, in its entirety, is designated as a terrorist organisation by countries including Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. New Zealand and Paraguay list only its military wing as a terrorist group. In 2018, the United Nations General Assembly voted against a resolution condemning Hamas in its entirety as a terrorist organisation.
