Extract from ABC News
Israel has continued to bombard the Gaza Strip on the third day of renewed war after the ceasefire with Hamas collapsed, hitting a refugee camp and southern cities where Gazans were previously evacuated to, as Gazans crowd into an ever-shrinking area in the south of the enclave.
Gaza's health ministry said on Sunday that 15,523 people, nearly 70 per cent of them women and children, have been killed in Gaza during the nearly two months of warfare.
The renewed fighting has heightened concerns for 136 Israeli hostages who, according to the Israeli military, are still held by Hamas and other militants in the Gaza Strip.
Here are the latest developments:
- Southern ground offensive feared as Israeli strikes continue
- Two ships hit by drone attacks in Red Sea
- Israel says it uncovered 800 tunnel shafts below Gaza
Southern ground offensive feared as Israeli strikes continue
Israel's military ordered more areas in Gaza's south to evacuate on Sunday as it bombed wide sections of the exclave, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians as civilians sought shelter in an ever-shrinking area of the south.
The Jabalia refugee camp in the north of Gaza was among the sites hit, killing several people, according to a Gazan health ministry spokesperson.
Bombardments from planes and artillery also continued to concentrate on the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah, residents said.
Hamas said its fighters clashed with Israeli troops around 2 kilometres from Khan Younis.
The bodies of 31 people killed by the Israeli bombardment across central Gaza were taken to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, said Omar al-Darawi, a hospital administrative employee.
The main hospital in Khan Younis received at least three dead and dozens wounded on Sunday from an Israeli strike that hit a residential building in the city's east, according to an AP journalist there.
"During the past hours, only 316 dead and 664 wounded were removed from rubble and taken to hospitals, but many others are still under the rubble," health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra said.
Gazans said on Sunday they feared an Israeli ground offensive on the southern areas was imminent.
Tanks had cut off the road between Khan Younis and Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, effectively dividing the Strip into three areas, they said.
The Israeli military ordered Palestinians to evacuate several areas in and around Khan Younis, posting a map highlighting shelters they should move to.
Before the latest evacuation orders, UN monitors said the areas told to evacuate made up about one-quarter of the territory.
UN officials and residents said it was difficult to heed Israeli evacuation orders because of patchy internet access and no regular supply of electricity.
And residents said that areas they had been told to go to were themselves coming under attack.
Israeli tanks shelled the eastern sector of Rafah on Sunday morning, residents said. There was no immediate comment from Israel on that.
After hundreds of thousands had fled the Israeli ground invasion in northern Gaza, residents said there was hardly any space for more displaced people in the south.
"Before, we used to ask ourselves whether we will die or not on this war, but in the past two days since Friday, we fear it is just a matter of time," said Maher, a 37-year-old father of three, who spoke to Reuters by telephone.
"I am a resident of Gaza City, then we moved to Al-Karara in southern Gaza Strip and yesterday we fled to deeper shelter in Khan Younis and today we are trying to flee under the bombardment to Rafah," he said.
In a new estimate, the UN humanitarian agency (OCHA) said about 1.8 million people — nearly 80 per cent of Gaza's population — were internally displaced.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that Israel was coordinating with the US and international organisations to define "safe areas" for Gaza civilians.
Two ships hit by drone attacks in Red Sea
The Pentagon said on Sunday it was aware of reports regarding attacks on an American warship and commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
"We're aware of reports regarding attacks on the USS Carney and commercial vessels in the Red Sea and will provide information as it becomes available," a US defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the ABC.
Maritime security sources on Sunday said that a bulk carrier ship had been hit by at least two drones while sailing in the Red Sea.
The USS Carney shot down a drone launched by Yemen's Houthi rebels on November 29, the US military said at the time.
Another container ship had reportedly suffered damage from a drone attack about 101 kilometres north-west of the northern Yemeni port of Hodeidah, British maritime security company Ambrey said.
The British military earlier said there had been a suspected drone attack and explosions in the Red Sea, without elaborating.
Yemen's Houthi rebels, who have expressed support for the Palestinians, have been launching a series of attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, as well as launching drones and missiles targeting Israel.
"All ships belonging to the Israeli enemy or that deal with it will become legitimate targets," the group said during an attack on November 21 on an Israeli-linked cargo ship.
The Houthi movement said it targeted two Israeli ships on Sunday with an armed drone and a naval missile.
The spokesperson said the two ships, Unity Explorer and Number Nine, were targeted after they rejected warnings from the group's navy.
Israel says it uncovered 800 tunnel shafts
Israeli forces have found 800 shafts leading to Hamas's subterranean network of tunnels and bunkers since its ground invasion into the Gaza Strip began and have destroyed more than half of them, the military said on Sunday.
Hamas said before the current Israel-Gaza war began that it had hundreds of kilometres of tunnels — a network comparable in size to the New York subway system — to protect and serve as operational bases.
That has made them targets for Israeli air strikes with penetrating munitions and army engineers using mapping robots and exploding gel that can be poured into the passages.
In a statement on Sunday, the Israeli military said the tunnel shafts were located in civilian areas.
Of the some 800 shafts discovered, it said that 500 had been destroyed using a variety of operational methods, including by "detonation and by sealing off".
The military also said that "many miles" of the main tunnel routes had been destroyed.
ABC/Wires
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