Street battles rage in Gaza as Hamas uses tunnel network to ambush Israeli forces

Palestinian militant group says its fighters have inflicted heavy losses on Israeli forces

Smoke rises as displaced Palestinians take shelter at Al Shifa hospital. Reuters

A Palestinian girl wounded in Israeli strikes waits for treatment at Al Shifa hospital, in Gaza city. Reuters

Flames rage in a field near the border village of Burj Al-Mamluk, in southern Lebanon's Khiam plain, after an Israeli bombardment. AFP

Smoke rises after air strikes during direct combat between the Israeli army and Hamas, near the beach road in Gaza city. EPA

Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, looking for safety, camp on the grounds of Al Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. AFP

People search through buildings, destroyed during Israeli air strikes in Khan Younis, Gaza. Getty Images

Israeli troops during operations in northern Gaza. AFP

A photo taken from the Israeli side of the border with Gaza shows the continued Israeli bombardment of the northern Gaza Strip. AFP

Palestinian men pray over the bodies of members of the Abu Taim family before burial in Khan Younis. AFP

Israeli soldiers stand amid rubble during the ground invasion against Palestinian militant group Hamas, in the northern Gaza Strip. Reuters

A woman and two children evacuated from Gaza walk on the tarmac at the Baza 90 air force base in Otopeni, Romania, after arriving from Egypt. AP

Gazans inspect the Khaled bin Al-Walid Mosque, which was destroyed during Israeli air raids in Khan Younis. Getty Images

Residents flee from Al Shatea refugee camp during combat between the Israeli army and Hamas in Gaza city. EPA

An artillery unit moves near the border with Lebanon, in Tel Aviv, Israel. Getty Images

Smoke rises during direct combat between the Israeli army and militants of the Ezz Al-Din Al Qassam militia, the military wing of the Hamas movement, at the beach road in west-centre Gaza City, 08 November 2023. More than 10,000 Palestinians and at least 1,400 Israelis have been killed, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Palestinian health authority, since Hamas militants launched an attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip on 07 October, and the Israeli operations in Gaza and the West Bank which followed it. EPA / MOHAMMED SABER

People search for survivors and bodies after a building was hit by Israeli bombing in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. AFP

A boy learns his father has been killed in an Israeli air strike at a hospital in Khan Younis. Reuters

Israeli soldiers training in the upper Galilee region, near the border with Lebanon. AFP

Destruction in the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from Sderot in southern Israel. Reuters

A girl looks on as bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes are laid out at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Reuters

Mourners pray next to the bodies of members of the Daher family, who were killed by Israel strikes, at the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip. Reuters

A satellite image shows the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. Reuters

People search through the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israeli air raids in Khan Younis. Getty Images

Smoke rises over the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from Sderot. Reuters

An ambulance transporting injured Palestinians to Egyptian hospitals for treatment waits on the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing. Reuters

Palestinian doctor Mohammad Abu Namoos, who chose to stay in Gaza to treat patients, says goodbye to his family before they leave. Reuters

The funeral of three children and their grandmother killed in an Israeli air strike in Blida, Lebanon. EPA

Palestinian children denouncing the killing of children in Gaza by waving banners and flags during a sit-in protest at the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut. AFP

Men pray during a rally in support of Palestinians outside Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, New York. AFP

A teddy bear symbolising hostages and missing children is placed on a bench in Tel Aviv, as people gather for a vigil to mark the one-month anniversary of the October 7 attack by Hamas militants on Israel. Reuters

A survivor of the Nova Festival attack, May Hayat, takes cover as rocket sirens sound, during her first visit to the scene of the attack, near Re'im, Israel. Reuters

Palestinians flee Gaza city to the southern Gaza Strip on Salah al-Din street in Bureij. AP

A satellite picture showing the Rafah border crossing to Egypt. AFP

People gather in Tel Aviv for a candlelit vigil to mark the one-month anniversary of the October 7 deadly attack by Hamas militants on Israel. Reuters

Doris Liber, whose son Guy Iluz is being held hostage in Gaza, during a press conference with House Republicans at the Capitol in Washington. AP

Palestinians flee to the southern Gaza Strip on Salah al-Din Street in Bureij. AP

Mourners attend the funeral of four Palestinians killed by Israeli troops at Tulkarm refugee camp, in the occupied West Bank. EPA

Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Gaza

Street battles raged in Gaza city as Israeli tanks met heavy resistance from Hamas fighters, who were staging ambushes using their network of underground tunnels.

The Israeli military said its troops had advanced into the heart of Gaza city but the Palestinian militant group said its fighters had inflicted heavy losses.

The armed wing of Hamas released a video on Wednesday that appeared to show intense street battles alongside bombed out buildings in Gaza city.

Sources with Iran-backed Hamas and their allied Islamic Jihad militant group told Reuters that Hamas fighters were using the tunnels to attack Israeli forces.

Israel struck Gaza in response to a cross-border Hamas raid on southern Israel on October 7 in which gunmen killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and took about 240 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Palestinian officials said 10,569 people had been killed as of Wednesday, 40 per cent of them children. Israel says 33 of its soldiers have been killed.

Six people were killed while others were injured after Israeli missiles struck a house in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip overnight, the Palestinian Interior Ministry said on Thursday.

The US said on Wednesday that a postwar Gaza must be governed by Palestinians after Israeli said it would control security in the enclave indefinitely.

Leaders in Washington have begun discussions with Israeli and Arab leaders over a future for the Gaza Strip without Hamas rule.

“No reoccupation of Gaza after the conflict ends,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday at a press conference in Tokyo.

He said there may be a need for “some transition period” at the end of the conflict but post-crisis governance “must include Palestinian-led governance and Gaza unified with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority.”

On Monday, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ABC News that Israel would, “for an indefinite period”, have security responsibility for the enclave after the war.

Chief Israeli military spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Wednesday that Hamas had lost control in the north of Gaza.

Israel's combat engineers were using explosive devices to destroy Hamas' tunnel network that stretches for hundreds of kilometres beneath Gaza, he said. The military said it had destroyed 130 tunnel shafts so far.

Israel has blamed Hamas for civilian deaths in Gaza, saying that it is using Gazans as human shields and hiding arms and operations centres in residential areas.

Israeli troops took foreign reporters to the edges of Gaza city on Wednesday.

Gaza health collapse

The Gaza Strip is at an increased risk of disease spreading due to Israeli air strikes that have disrupted the health system and access to clean water, and caused people to crowd in shelters, the World Health Organisation warned on Wednesday.

“As deaths and injuries in Gaza continue to rise due to intensified hostilities, intense overcrowding and disrupted health, water and sanitation systems pose an added danger – the rapid spread of infectious diseases,” the WHO said.

“Some worrying trends are already emerging.”

It said that the lack of fuel in the densely populated enclave had caused desalination plants to shut down, which increased the risk of bacterial infections such as diarrhoea spreading.

The WHO said that more than 33,551 cases of diarrhoea had been reported since mid-October, most of which were among children under the age of five.

The lack of fuel has also disrupted the collection of solid waste, which the WHO said created an “environment conducive to the rapid and widespread proliferation of insects and rodents that can carry and transit diseases”.

It said that it was “almost impossible” for health centres to maintain basic infection prevention measures, increasing the risk of infection caused by trauma, surgery and childbirth.

“Disrupted routine vaccination activities, as well as lack of medicines for treating communicable diseases, further increase the risk of accelerated disease spread,” the WHO said.

– Additional reporting by Reuters