Israel says 'Gaza is burning' as it launches ground assault

In the latest expression of international alarm, a United Nations Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. Israel called the assessment "scandalous" and "fake".

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United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that what is happening in Gaza was horrendous and that the war in the Palestinian territory was morally, politically and legally intolerable.

The United Nations rights chief said on Tuesday evidence of a “genocide” unfolding in Gaza was mounting, as Israel scaled up its offensive in the Palestinian territory with a ground assault on Gaza City.

"We see the piling up of war crime after war crime after war crime, of crime against humanity, and potentially even more," Volker Turk told AFP and Reuters, adding: "It's for the court to decide whether it's genocide or not, and we see the evidence mounting."

Gaza health officials reported at least 70 people had been killed on Tuesday, most of them in Gaza City, as airstrikes swept across the city and tanks advanced.

Where a missile had destroyed two multi-storey residential buildings during the night, people clambered over an immense mound of dislocated concrete to pry out victims, footage obtained by Reuters showed. A woman cried as a small child’s body was pulled from the wreckage, hastily wrapped in a green blanket and carried away.