Israeli army divisions advance on Gaza City as residents flee south

Israeli troops pressed ahead with a ground offensive into Gaza City yesterday, making further efforts to force more people to flee their homes and travel to overcrowded and unsafe areas to the south.

- Julian Borger Jerusalem Jason Burke

The Israel Defense Forces said they carried out 150 air and artillery strikes before the ground operation that began on Tuesday morning.

Two army divisions are working their way toward the city centre and are expected to be joined by a third.

Several of the airstrikes brought down apartment blocks in the midst of tented camps inhabited by displaced people. Israel claims the buildings were being used by Hamas for surveillance.

Gaza City's al-Rantisi children's hospital was hit on Tuesday night.

According to the Gaza health ministry, half the hospital's 80 patients fled the building but the rest, including four children in intensive care and eight premature babies, stayed. Overnight strikes killed 16 people, according to hospital staff, bringing the total Palestinian death toll in two years of war to 65,000.

A UN human rights commission published a report on Tuesday concluding that Israel had been committing genocide in Gaza.

The coast road leading south from Gaza City has been packed with families trying to flee the offensive.

The IDF yesterday announced the opening of a second route - through the middle of the Gaza Strip - to try to encourage the exodus.