Tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza flee for 2nd time in Israel-Hamas war

Israeli tanks advanceddeep into a town in the central Gaza Strip on Thursday afterdays of relentless bombardment that forced tens of thousands ofalready displaced Palestinian families to flee in a new exodus.

A Palestinian journalist posted pictures of Israeli tanksnear a mosque in a built-up area of Bureij,They had apparentlyadvanced from orchards on the eastern outskirts.

Further south, Israeli forces struck the area around ahospital in the heart of Khan Younis, the Gaza Strip's mainsouthern city, where residents feared a new ground push intoterritory crowded with families made homeless in 12 weeks ofwar.

Palestinian health authorities said 210 people wereconfirmed killed in Israeli strikes in the previous24 hours,raising the toll of the war to 21,320 dead nearly oneper cent ofthe enclave's population. Thousands more dead are feared to be buried or lost in the ruins.

Israel has escalated its ground war in Gaza sharply sincejust before Christmas despite public pleas from its closest ally, the United States, to scale the campaign down in the closingweeks of the year.

Israel aims to destroy the Hamas movement that runsGaza after fighters rampaged through Israeli towns on Oct. 7,killing 1,200 people and capturing 240 hostages.

The main focus of fighting is now in central areas south ofthe wetlands that bisect the Gaza Strip, where Israeli forces have ordered civilians out as their tanks advance.

'Nowhere to go'

Tens of thousands of people fleeing the huge Nusseirat,Bureij and Maghazi districts of central Gaza were heading southor west on Thursday into the already overwhelmed city of Deiral-Balah along the Mediterranean coast, crowding into hastilybuilt camps of makeshift tents.

"Over 150,000 people young children, women carryingbabies, people with disabilities & the elderly have nowhere togo," the main UNorganization operating in Gaza, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), saidin a social media post.

The eastern part of Bureij was a theatreof heavy fightingon Thursday morning, with Israeli tanks pushing in from the north and east, residents and militants said.

"That moment has come.I wished it would never happen, butit seems displacement is a must," said Omar, 60, who noted he hadbeen forced to move with at least 35 family members.

"We are now in a tent in Deir al-Balah because of thisbrutal Israeli war," he told Reuters by phone, declining to givea second name for fear of reprisals.

Yamen Hamad, living in a school in Deir al-Balah sincefleeing from the north, said the new refugees arriving fromBureij and Nusseirat were setting up tents wherever there wasopen ground.

With food running out, he said he had made a perilous tripto Rafah near the Egyptian border to buy a 25-kilogramsack of flourfor his family.

Heavy bombardment

Khan Younis, the main southern city where Israeli forcesadvanced this month after a truce collapsed, came under heavy bombardment on Thursday morning from warplanes and tanks nearthe Al-Amal hospital, west of Israeli positions.

The Palestinian Red Crescent, which runs the hospital andhas its headquarters nearby, said 10 Palestinians were killed and 12 wounded in one bombardment there, the third striketargeting the area around the hospital in less than an hour.

Residents said they believed Israeli forces were trying toprovoke a new exodus ahead of a further ground assault in the city.

WATCH | Israel vows to continue fighting in Gaza as humanitarian crisis deepens:

Israel claims it's reduced civilian casualties as Gazans pleads for help

9 months ago

Duration 2:04

While millions in Gaza scramble for any sort of shelter, Israel claims its trying to be more surgical in its military operations to reduce civilian casualties, but also warns its campaign to crush Hamas could last months.

Nearbyat Nasser Hospital, the main hospital in Khan Younisand largest still functioning in the enclave, women and childrenshrieked as the dead and wounded were brought in.

A toddler lay motionless on a cot while medics tried torevive him; one doctor nodded "no," signalling the boy was dead.

A woman held back two wailing girls, covered in dust by theside of a bed, as a baby wrapped in a bloody white shroud wasplaced by the legs of another body wrapped in a blanket.

Israel reported threemore of its soldiers killed in fighting in central and southernareas, bringing the toll in the ground campaign to 169. The past week has seen some of its heaviest losses of the war so far.

Hamas's elimination still Israel's goal

Virtually all residents have been driven from their homes atleast once and many have been forced to flee several times. Only a handfulof hospitals are still functioning.

Egypt, which has acted as a mediator, including hosting theleader of Hamas last week, said it had put forward a proposal toend the bloodshed, including a three-stage plan for a ceasefire,but had yet to hear the warring sides' responses.

Israel says it will not halt its ground campaign until itannihilates Hamas, saying it's the only option tosafeguard its security and free 129 remaining hostages.

Chen Almog-Goldstein was released last month after 51 days incaptivity with three of her children seized by Hamas gunmen whokilled her husband and one of her daughters. Almog-Goldsteinsaid she feared forhostages still being held, especially women, some of whom shesaid had been sexually abused by their captors.

"It is hell there," she said. The remaining hostages "aretrying to keep their morale up, but when we were let out, they were already on the edge."

Hamas denies mistreating or sexually abusing the hostages.

Palestinians say wiping out Hamas, which has been sworn toIsrael's destruction for decades, is an unachievable aim, giventhe militant group's diffuse structure and deep roots in aterritory it has ruled since 2007.

Israel's Western allies worrythe huge civilian tollwill radicalize a new generation of Palestinians and spreadfighting across the Middle East. This week, Iran-backed groupshave attacked U.S. forces in Iraq and commercial shipping in theRed Sea.

U.S. President Joe Biden warned this month that"indiscriminate bombing" jeopardized sympathy for Israel amongits allies. Washington has said Israel should make a transitionfrom full-scale ground war to a targeted campaign against Hamasleaders.