Israeli forces bombard refugee camps in central Gaza as UN appoints humanitarian co-ordinator

Israeli forces on Tuesday expanded their ground offensive into urban refugee camps in central Gaza after bombarding the crowded Palestinian communities and ordering residents to evacuate.

Gaza's main telecom provider announced another "complete interruption" of services in the besieged territory.

The military's announcement of the new battle zone threatens further destruction in a war that Israel's military says will last for "many months" as it vows to crush Hamas after its Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.

Israeli forces have been engaged in heavy urban fighting in northern Gaza and the southern city of Khan Younis, driving Palestinians into ever-smaller areas in search of refuge.

The United States said Israel's minister for strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, was meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.

Despite international pressure for a ceasefire and U.S. calls for a reduction in civilian casualties, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said the military was deepening the fighting.

"We say to the Hamas terrorists: We see you and we will get to you," Netanyahu said.

UN appoints relief co-ordinator

Israel's offensive has been one of the most devastating military campaigns in recent history. More than 20,900 Palestinians have been killed, two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, whose count doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants. The agency said 240 people were killed over the past 24 hours.

The United Nations human rights office said the continued bombardment of central Gaza had claimed more than 100 Palestinian lives since Christmas Eve. The office noted that Israel had ordered some residents to move there.

Israel said it would no longer grant automatic visas to UN employees and accused the world body of being "complicit partners" in Hamas's tactics. Government spokesperson Eylon Levy said Israel would consider visa requests case by case. That could further limit aid efforts in Gaza.

Meanwhile, the UN announced on Tuesday that it had appointed Sigrid Kaag, the Netherlands' outgoing deputy prime minister and finance minister, to oversee humanitarian relief shipments into Gaza starting Jan 8.

The appointment was part of a UN security council resolution adopted on Friday to boost humanitarian aid.

UN officials say a quarter of Gaza's population is starving under Israel's siege, which allows only a trickle of food, water, fuel, medicine and other supplies into the territory. More than 85 per cent of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes.

'The bombing was very intense'

Residents of central Gaza on Tuesday described shelling and airstrikes shaking the Nuseirat, Maghazi and Bureij refugee camps. The built-up towns house Palestinians driven from their homes in what is now Israel during the 1948 war, along with their descendants.

"The bombing was very intense," Palestinian teacher Radwan Abu Sheitta said by phone from Bureij.

The Israeli military ordered residents to evacuate a belt of territory the width of central Gaza, urging them to move to nearby Deir al-Balah.

The UN humanitarian office said the area ordered evacuated was home to nearly 90,000 people before the war and now shelters more than 61,000 displaced people, mostly from the north.

The military later said it was operating in Bureij and asserted that it had located a Hamas training camp.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said several countries had sent proposals to resolve the conflict following news of an Egyptian proposal that would include a transitional Palestinian government in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. He did not offer details of the proposals.

Regional tensions inflamed

There are new signs of the Israel-Hamas war inflaming tensions around the region. Throughout the war, a constellation of Iranian-backed militia groups have stepped up attacks in support of Hamas.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi militia claimed responsibility for a missile attack on Tuesday on a container ship in the Red Sea and for an attempt to attack Israel with drones.

The Houthis have been attacking ships they say have links to Israel in the entrance to the Red Sea, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. The attacks are a response to Israel's assault on Gaza, the militia says.

An Israeli airstrike killed a senior leader of Iran's Revolutionary Guards in Syria on Monday.

And on the Lebanon border on Tuesday, Israel said Hezbollah fired anti-tank missiles at a church, wounding nine Israeli soldiers and a civilian, after which it fired rockets from near a mosque, drawing retaliatory airstrikes.

LISTEN | What is Hezbollah, and why does it represent a growing threat to Israel?:

Airstrikes devastate Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp

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Duration 0:48

Freelance journalist Mohamed El Saife captured stark video at the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza on Tuesday, a day after dozens of people were killed in an Israeli airstrike, according to Palestinian health officials.

"Hezbollah is risking the stability of the region for the sake of Hamas," said Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.

About 150 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, mostly fighters from Hezbollah and other groups, but also 17 civilians. At least seven soldiers and four civilians have been killed on the Israeli side.

In India, meanwhile, there was an explosion near the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi. Authorities said no staff were hurt.

WATCH | Airstrikes devastate Gaza's Maghazi refugee camp:

Front Burner20:15What is Hezbollah?

As Israel’s ground war in Gaza escalates, there’s another conflict threatening to spill over. Israel and Hezbollah continue to exchange fire on the Lebanon border, stoking fears that a second front may open up. What is Hezbollah? Why does it present a growing threat to Israel? How could an escalating conflict between the two could spark a wider regional war? Journalist Rebecca Collard in Beirut explains. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

'Multi-arena war'

Speaking during a foreign affairs and defence committee meeting at the Knesset on Tuesday, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the country faces a "multi-arena war" on seven fronts: Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, Iraq, Yemen and Iran.

"We have responded and acted already on six of these fronts," Gallant said, though he wouldn't elaborate further on which fronts Israel has acted upon.

Israeli troops have been engaged in nearly two months of ground combat with Hamas and other militants in northern Gaza, and weeks of urban fighting in Khan Younis. The battles and bombardment have levelled large swaths of both areas, and strikes have continued across the territory.

Hamas has shown resilience. The Israeli military announced the deaths of two more soldiers on Tuesday, bringing the total killed since the ground offensive began to 161.

Israel has vowed to continue fighting to eliminate Hamas's military and governing capabilities in Gaza, after the militants' Oct. 7 attack that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, with some 240 people taken hostage. Israel says it also aims to free the more than 100 hostages who remain in captivity in Gaza.

President Joe Biden and Qatar's ruling emir, Amir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, spoke on Tuesday, discussing the urgent effort to secure the release of all remaining hostages held by Hamas, including American citizens.

The leaders also discussed the ongoing efforts to facilitate increased and sustained flows of access to life-saving humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Israel blames Hamas for the high civilian death toll in Gaza, citing the militants' use of crowded residential areas and tunnels. Israel says it has killed thousands of Hamas militants, without presenting evidence.

The expanding fighting has pushed Gaza's population into a shrinking area, particularly the central city of Deir al-Balah and Rafah, in the far south on the Egyptian border. Both have come under continuous bombardment.