Key Points
- Thousands of civilians have fled from north Gaza as Israeli forces continue to attack Hamas militants.
- UN chief António Guterres has said the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza show something "wrong"' with Israel's operation.
- The Gaza interior ministry said 19 people were killed in an airstrike near a hospital in a refugee camp.
The Rafah border crossing into Gaza was closed on Wednesday due to an unspecified "security circumstance" but US officials were working with Egypt and Israel to get it reopened, US State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said.
Rafah, which is controlled by Egypt and does not border Israel, is the only point of aid delivery since Israel launched a in retaliation for an attack by Hamas militants from the coastal strip on 7 October.
Evacuations of foreign passport holders through the crossing were suspended on Saturday and Sunday after an Israeli strike on an ambulance that was heading to Rafah, but the crossing was open again on Monday and Tuesday.
"Our understanding is that given a security circumstance the Rafah border crossing remains closed today," Patel said during a regular press briefing.
The United States expects the Egypt-controlled crossing will be reopened at "regular intervals" so that aid can enter the Gaza Strip and foreign nationals can continue to depart, Patel said.
"This is an incredibly fluid situation. The border crossing has opened on many instances and allowed for the safe ... exit for foreign nationals who have sought it," he said.
Washington has urged Israel to agree to humanitarian pauses so that aid can flow into Gaza.
Patel said 81 trucks carrying essential supplies crossed into the strip on Tuesday, bringing to about 650 the total number of trucks that have crossed since a diplomatic agreement was reached to reopen the crossing on 21 October.
Palestinians carry a survivor of Israeli bombardment in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday. Source: Getty / Mahmud Hams
Humanitarian situation in Gaza 'catastrophic'
The United Nations has been working to increase humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza.
UN chief Antonio Guterres has been pushing for a humanitarian ceasefire to allow aid access to Gaza.
"It is absolutely essential - absolutely essential - to have a flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza that corresponds to the dramatic needs that the population is facing," Guterres said.
"We are in intense negotiations with Israel, with US, with Egypt, in order to make sure that we have an effective humanitarian aid to Gaza," Guterres said.
"Until now it has been too little, too late."
Palestinians flee to the southern Gaza Strip on Salah al-Din Street in Bureij, Gaza Strip, on Wednesday. Source: AAP / Hatem Moussa
Thousands flee north Gaza as Israel troops, Hamas clash
Israeli forces and Hamas fighters appeared to be battling at close range in Gaza City as thousands of civilians fled south to avoid being trapped in the heart of the conflict.
The Israeli military said its troops had advanced into the heart of Gaza City, Hamas' main bastion and the biggest city in the seaside enclave, while Hamas said its fighters had inflicted heavy losses.
Residents in Gaza City said Israeli were fighting Hamas and other militants and that tanks were stationed around the city.
They said Israeli forces were moving closer to two hospitals where thousands of displaced Palestinians were seeking shelter.
Hamas' armed wing on Wednesday released a video that appeared to show intense street battles alongside bombed-out buildings in Gaza City.
Israeli tanks have met heavy resistance from Hamas fighters using underground tunnels to stage ambushes, according to sources with Iran-backed Hamas and the separate Islamic Jihad militant group.
Palestinian health officials said an air strike that hit houses in the killed 18 people on Wednesday morning.
The military said troops have advanced to the heart of the city while Hamas says its fighters have inflicted . Israel says combat engineers are using explosive devices to destroy a Hamas tunnel network.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said combat engineers were using explosive devices to destroy . The military said it had destroyed 130 tunnel shafts so far.
"Combat engineers fighting in Gaza are destroying the enemy's weapons and are locating, exposing and detonating tunnel shafts," it said.
Huge numbers of displaced people from among Gaza's 2.3 million population are already crammed into schools, hospitals and other sites in the south.
Something 'wrong' with Israel operation, Guterres says
Guterres said on Wednesday that the number of civilians killed in the Gaza Strip shows that there against Hamas.
Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, after the militants killed 1,400 people and took more than 240 hostages in a 7 October attack.
Israel has struck Gaza - an enclave of 2.3 million people - from the air, imposed a siege and launched a ground invasion.
"There are violations by Hamas when they have human shields. But when one looks at the number of civilians that were killed with the military operations, there is something that is clearly wrong," Guterres told Reuters.
Palestinian officials said 10,569 people have now been killed in Gaza, .
"It is also important to make Israel understand that it is against the interests of Israel to see every day the terrible image of the dramatic humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people," Guterres said.
"That doesn't help Israel in relation to the global public opinion." While strongly condemning the Hamas attack on Israel, Guterres said that "we need to distinguish - Hamas is one thing, the Palestinian people (are) another."
"If we don't make that distinction, I think it's humanity itself that will lose its meaning," Guterres said.
Guterres compared the number of children being killed in Gaza with the toll in conflicts around the world that he reports on annually to the UN Security Council.
On Monday, he said Gaza was becoming "a graveyard for children."
"Every year, the highest number of killings of children by any of the actors in all the conflicts that we witness is the maximum in the hundreds," Guterres said.
"We have in a few days in Gaza thousands and thousands of children killed, which means there is also something clearly wrong in the way military operations are being done," he added.
US says there must be 'Palestinian-led governance' after conflict
As the Israel-Hamas war enters its second month, the United States said when the war does end Palestinians must govern Gaza.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken outlined Washington's red lines and expectations for the besieged coastal territory on Wednesday, pushing back at Israeli comments that it would be responsible for security in Gaza indefinitely.
There should be "no reoccupation of Gaza after the conflict ends. No attempt to blockade or besiege Gaza. No reduction in the territory of Gaza," Blinken said at a press conference in Tokyo.
While Blinken said there may be a need for "some transition period" at the end of the conflict, but post-crisis governance in Gaza must include Palestinian voices.
"It must include Palestinian-led governance and Gaza unified with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority."
The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, says the Gaza Strip, where Hamas has ruled since 2007, is an integral part of what it envisions for a future Palestinian state.
Israeli officials have clarified they do not intend to occupy Gaza after the war, but they have yet to articulate how they might ensure security without maintaining a military presence. Israel withdrew its forces from Gaza in 2005.
Conference on humanitarian aid starts in Paris
A conference in Paris on Thursday, attended by Arab nations, Western powers, G20 members and NGO groups such as Doctors Without Borders will discuss measures to alleviate the suffering in Gaza, but without a pause in fighting expectations are low.
"The object is really to work with all the participants and also with Israel ... to allow improved access," a French presidential official told reporters ahead of the conference.
Among the options discussed will be setting up a maritime corridor to use sea lanes to ship humanitarian aid into Gaza and see how ships could be used to help evacuate the wounded.
What is Hamas?
Hamas is a Palestinian military and political group, which has gained power in the Gaza Strip since winning legislative elections there in 2006. Its stated aim is to establish a Palestinian state, while refusing to recognise Israel's right to exist.
Hamas, in its entirety, is designated as a terrorist organisation by countries including Australia, Canada, the UK and the US.
New Zealand and Paraguay list only its military wing as a terrorist group. In 2018, the United Nations General Assembly voted against a resolution condemning Hamas in its entirety as a terrorist organisation.
