Israeli forces on Tuesday expanded their ground offensive into urban refugee camps in central Gaza after bombarding the crowded Palestinian communities and ordering residents to evacuate. Gaza's main telecom provider announced another "complete interruption" of service in the besieged territory, the AP reports. The military's announcement of the new battle zone threatens further destruction in a war that Israel says will last for "many months" as it vows to crush the ruling Hamas militant group after its Oct. 7 attack. Israeli forces have been engaged in heavy urban fighting in northern Gaza and the southern city of Khan Younis, driving Palestinians into ever-smaller areas in search of refuge.
The US said Israel's minister for strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, was meeting Tuesday with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan. Despite US calls for Israel to curb civilian casualties and international pressure for a cease-fire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military was deepening the fighting. The Health Ministry in Gaza said Tuesday that 240 people were killed in the past 24 hours. "We say to the Hamas terrorists: We see you and we will get to you," Netanyahu said. The UN human rights office said the continued bombardment of middle Gaza had claimed more than 100 Palestinian lives since Christmas Eve. The office noted that Israel had ordered some residents to move there.
Residents of central Gaza described shelling and airstrikes shaking the Nuseirat, Maghazi, and Bureij camps. The built-up towns hold Palestinians driven from their homes in what is now Israel during the 1948 war, along with their descendants. "The bombing was very intense," Radwan Abu Sheitta said by phone from Bureij. The Israeli military ordered residents to evacuate a belt of territory the width of central Gaza, urging them to move to nearby Deir al-Balah, per the AP. The UN humanitarian office said the area to be evacuated had nearly 90,000 people before the war and now shelters more than 61,000 displaced people, mostly from the north.
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