Israeli troops battled Hamas fighters Thursday in the heart of southern Gaza's main city where a top Hamas leader is believed to be hiding, while pressing their offensive across the besieged territory.
Breaking through Hamas's defences of Gaza's second largest city, Israeli troops, tanks, armoured personnel carriers and bulldozers rolled into Khan Yunis, forcing already displaced civilians to flee again, witnesses said.
Hamas said late Wednesday on Telegram its fighters were engaged in fierce battles against Israeli troops "on all axes of the incursion into the Gaza Strip", as it claimed they destroyed two dozen military vehicles in Khan Yunis and Beit Lahia in the north of the territory.
Earlier, the Israeli army said it had pierced defensive lines and carried out "targeted raids in the heart of the city", where they found and destroyed 30 tunnel shafts.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement that Israeli forces were closing in on the home of Hamas's chief in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar, with a spokesman saying it is "underground" in the Khan Yunis area.
But humanitarian organisations have warned the spread of the war into the south of the Gaza Strip will leave civilians who fled the north, much of which is now devastated, with nowhere to go.
"We are devastated, mentally overwhelmed," said Khan Yunis resident Amal Mahdi. "We need someone to find us a solution so we can get out of this situation."
Israel declared war on Hamas after the militant group's October 7 attacks that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities, and saw around 240 hostages taken.
The latest toll from the Hamas government said the war has killed more than 16,000 people in Gaza, most of them women and children.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and free 138 hostages still held after scores were released during a short-lived truce that broke down last week.
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- 'Desperate conditions' -
Much of northern Gaza has already been reduced to rubble by fierce fighting and bombardment, displacing 1.9 million people according to UN figures.
Many civilians fled to Khan Yunis when Israel ordered them to evacuate the north of the territory earlier in the war.
They are now being pushed further south to Rafah on the border with Egypt.
"There was bombardment, destruction, leaflets dropping, threats, and phone calls to evacuate and leave Khan Yunis," said Khamis Al-Dalu, who told AFP he was first displaced from Gaza City, and then from Khan Yunis to Rafah.
"Where to go? Where do you want us to go for God's sake? We left Khan Yunis and now we are in tents in Rafah."
And Israeli bombardments have followed them there.
A strike on a residential district in Rafah left 17 dead and dozens injured late Wednesday, the Hamas health ministry said, and an AFP journalist saw the wounded, including children, being taken to a local Kuwaiti hospital.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera television network said one of its journalists had lost 22 members of his family in a strike in the northern refugee camp of Jabalia.
The Israeli army said Wednesday it had struck about 250 targets in Gaza over the past 24 hours and that troops had found a major arms depot "in the heart of a civilian population" near a clinic and school in the north of the territory.
"The depot contained hundreds of RPG missiles and launchers of various types, dozens of anti-tank missiles," explosives and drones, it said in a statement.
AFP footage from Wednesday showed smoke trails after rocket fire from Rafah towards Israel.
- 'Minimal' fuel increase -
Mass civilian casualties in the war have sparked global concern, heightened by dire shortages caused by an Israeli siege that has seen only limited supplies of food, water, fuel and medicines enter.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he expects "public order to completely break down soon due to the desperate conditions" in Gaza, with "potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians as a whole."
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen on Wednesday lashed out against Guterres, saying his tenure was "a danger to world peace" after he invoked a rare UN procedure over the Gaza war.
"His request to activate Article 99 and the call for a ceasefire in Gaza constitutes support of the Hamas terrorist organization," Cohen wrote on X.
"We, too, want this war to end," Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy told reporters, "But it can only end in a way that ensures that Hamas can never attack our people again."
On Wednesday, Israel approved a "minimal" increase in fuel supplies to Gaza, to prevent a "humanitarian collapse and the outbreak of epidemics in the south of the Gaza Strip", according to Netanyahu's office.
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- New settlements approved -
The war has sparked fears of a wider regional conflict, with near-daily exchanges of fire with Iran-backed Hezbollah across Israel's border with Lebanon and a surge of deadly violence in the occupied West Bank.
On Wednesday, Israel said a missile fired at the Red Sea town of Eilat "was successfully intercepted" after sirens blared in the resort.
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli troops raided two refugee camps and killed three Palestinians, one aged 16, according to the Palestinian health ministry and Wafa news agency.
Palestinian authorities say more than 250 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire or settler attacks since the war began.
Israeli authorities meanwhile approved the construction of more than 1,700 new homes, a non-governmental organisation said Wednesday, a move constituting the expansion of settlements in occupied east Jerusalem.
Half the "new neighbourhood" comprising 1,738 housing units will be in the city's annexed east, the Israeli NGO Peace Now said.
"If it weren't for the war (between Israel and Hamas), there would be a lot of noise. It's a highly problematic project for the continuity of a Palestinian state between the southern West Bank and east Jerusalem," Peace Now's Hagit Ofran told AFP.
Public order in Gaza likely to break down: UN chief
The UN secretary-general, warning he expects public order in Gaza to break down completely and soon, struck a rare and powerful alarm bell in a letter Wednesday to the Security Council.
Antonio Guterres said he was invoking Article 99 of the UN's charter, which states that "the Secretary-General may bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security."
While repeating his call for a "humanitarian cease fire," Guterres wrote that the humanitarian conditions amid the Israel-Hamas war are "fast deteriorating into a catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians as a whole."
"Amid constant bombardment by the Israel Defense Forces, and without shelter or the essentials to survive, I expect public order to completely break down soon due to the desperate conditions, rendering even limited humanitarian assistance impossible," he said.
"An even worse situation could unfold, including epidemic diseases and increased pressure for mass displacement into neighboring countries."
The secretary-general's spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, called the move "very dramatic," noting that Article 99 hadn't been invoked in decades.
"He is invoking one of the few powers that the charter gives him," Dujarric said.
- 'Impossible' conditions -
Guterres, who took office in 2017, also urged the members of the Security Council to "press to avert a humanitarian catastrophe."
"The health care system in Gaza is collapsing," he said, adding that "there is no effective protection of civilians."
Israel's foreign minister later lashed out at the UN chief, saying Guterres's tenure was "a danger to world peace" after his invoking of the rare procedure.
"His request to activate Article 99 and the call for a ceasefire in Gaza constitutes support of the Hamas terrorist organization," Eli Cohen wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
The Security Council is expected to convene on Friday, diplomats said.
"We cannot move further without having the Security Council shouldering its responsibility," said Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour.
Fighting between Israel and Hamas, which governs the besieged coastal territory of the Gaza Strip, kicked off when Hamas militants launched a deadly cross-border raid on October 7, killing some 1,200 people, most of whom were civilians, according to Israeli authorities.
Guterres denounced the Hamas attacks on Wednesday as "abhorrent acts of terror."
Israel has launched a brutal ground and air assault in Gaza in response to the attacks, killing more than 16,200 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas government.
The situation threatens "peace and security in the region," Guterres warned.
"With a humanitarian ceasefire, the means of survival can be restored, and humanitarian assistance can be delivered in a safe and timely manner across the Gaza Strip."
In mid-November, after four rejected draft texts, the heavily divided Security Council called for "extended humanitarian pauses" in the Gaza Strip, in what was the first time it broke its silence on the bloody conflict.
According to diplomatic sources, Security Council members are working on a new draft resolution focused on humanitarian aid.
The United Arab Emirates has circulated a draft resolution that calls for an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire," according to the text seen by AFP.
But Deputy US Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood said he didn't think a Security Council resolution "would be useful at this point."
"A lot of the good work that has been going on trying to improve the situation has been happening on the ground in the region, and we need to continue that."
Israel approves 'minimal' fuel increase to Gaza
Israel on Wednesday approved a "minimal" increase in fuel supplies to war-torn Gaza to prevent a "humanitarian collapse", Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said.
The announcement comes as the United Nations warned of a total breakdown of public order in Gaza as fighting intensifies in the south of the Palestinian territory.
A "minimal supplement of fuel -- necessary to prevent a humanitarian collapse and the outbreak of epidemics" had been approved to enter "into the southern Gaza Strip", Netanyahu's office wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
It said the fuel supply increase was "necessary to avoid a humanitarian collapse and the outbreak of epidemics in the south of the Gaza Strip", which is controlled by Hamas.
"The minimal amount will be determined from time to time by the War Cabinet according to the morbidity situation and humanitarian situation in the Strip," it added.
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On Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he feared that public order would "completely break down soon" in Gaza.
"Amid constant bombardment by the Israel Defense Forces, and without shelter or the essentials to survive, I expect public order to completely break down soon due to the desperate conditions, rendering even limited humanitarian assistance impossible," he said in a letter to the UN Security Council.
For the first time since becoming UN chief in 2017, Guterres invoked Article 99 of the Charter, which allows him to "bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security".
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen hit back, saying Guterres' mandate was a "danger to world peace".
G7 leaders, including Israel's key partners, called on Wednesday for "more urgent" action to tackle the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Israel's announcement comes two days after its main ally, the United States, called for more fuel to be allowed into Gaza, with US diplomats referring to "very frank conversations".
More than 16,200 people, most of them women and children, have been killed in Gaza by Israeli bombardments since October, according to Hamas health officials.
Fighting between Israel and Hamas began when Hamas militants launched a deadly cross-border attack on October 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities.