Israel expands its offensive in Gaza

Palestinian health authorities said 210 people were confirmed killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours

- 

Israeli tanks advanced deep into a town in the central Gaza Strip on Thursday after days of relentless bombardment that forced tens of thousands of already displaced Palestinian families to flee in a new exodus.

Further south, Israeli forces struck the area around a hospital in the heart of Khan Younis, the Gaza Strip's main southern city, where residents feared a new ground push into territory crowded with families made homeless in 12 weeks of war.

Palestinian health authorities said 210 people were confirmed killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, raising the toll of the war to 21,320 dead-nearly 1% of the 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 since just before Christmas despite public pleas from its closest ally the United States to scale the campaign down in the closing weeks of the year.

It launched the war to destroy the Hamas movement that runs Gaza after fighters rampaged through Israeli towns on October 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing 240 hostages.