Hamas said it was engaged in "heavy fighting" with Israeli troops inside northern Gaza Sunday, as residents were again warned to flee southward.
After weeks of ferocious airstrikes, Israel has declared a new "stage" in a war that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned would be "long and difficult".
Late Sunday Israel's military released footage that purported to show a significant number of tanks, infantry, and artillery operating in Palestinian territory. The military claimed to have struck more than "450 terror targets, including operational command centers, observation posts, and anti-tank missile launch posts".
Hamas said its Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades were already "engaged in heavy fighting... with the invading occupation forces".
With a fierce door-to-door urban war expected, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari told Palestinian civilians to go south "to a safer area".
The health ministry in Gaza says more than 8,000 people, mainly civilians, half of them children have already been killed. - Food, water, medicine - Inside Gaza's maze of streets, rubble, and hulled-out buildings, there is a growing sense of panic, fear, and desperation. Ibrahim Shandoughli, a 53-year-old from Jabaliya in northern Gaza, asked why he would head south when that area is also being bombed.
"Where do you want us to evacuate to? All the areas are dangerous," he said. Etidal al-Masri was among those who fled after Israel told residents in the north to leave. But she still struggles to find even the basics amid shortages of food, water, and medicine. Gazans "must now queue for bread, toilets, and even for sleep", she said. On Sunday, the desperation appeared to boil over. The United Nations reported that "thousands of people" had ransacked several of its warehouses looking for tinned food, flour, oil, and hygiene supplies.
Only a trickle of aid has been allowed to cross the border from Egypt. The UN said 33 trucks carrying water, food, and medical supplies had entered Gaza on October 29. It is one of the largest deliveries to date, but still far short of the 100-a-day aid groups say is needed. International Criminal Court lead prosecutor Karim Khan told Israel on Sunday that preventing access to humanitarian aid could be a "crime".
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