GAZA: Israeli troops pushed deeper into Gaza on Tuesday, driving tanks and armoured bulldozers through the rubble of shattered buildings.
As Israel stepped up its relentless bombing of Gaza, desperate Palestinian families scrabbled through debris searching for survivors and mourned over the bodies of some of the thousands killed, draped in white shrouds.
Israeli army footage showed soldiers advancing through a bomb-scarred landscape, with buildings reduced to a mangled mess of stone and twisted metal by weeks of withering air and artillery strikes.
Israel said it had struck 300 targets during the fourth night of land operations in Gaza, where troops came under anti-tank and machine-gun fire.
Footage over Gaza showed a huge plume of smoke billowing up from another Israeli strike. The bombing campaign has killed 8,525 people, according to Gaza's health ministry, many of them children.
The humanitarian toll has sparked a global backlash, with aid groups and the United Nations saying time is running out for many of the territory's 2.4 million people denied access to food, water, fuel and medicine.
Israeli families have endured an unbearable wait for news about loved-ones detained in Gaza.
On Monday, a video was released of what it said were three women hostages, seated against a tile wall. One urged Israel to agree to Palestinian prisoners swap.
As even Israel's staunchest allies voiced concern about the dire humanitarian crisis in southern Gaza, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA said there was not nearly enough aid to meet the "unprecedented" needs.
"When an eight-year-old tells you that she doesn't want to die, it's hard not to feel helpless," said UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths.
Hisham Adwan, Gaza director of the Rafah crossing with Egypt where some aid has been allowed in, said 36 trucks had been waiting there since the previous day.
"I feel that it's extremely slow and there's disruption to UNRWA's work, and we don't know why," he said.
Meanwhile, Lebanese caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati has said that it was his "duty to prevent Lebanon from entering the war".
Israel's military has struck targets in Syria and traded cross-border fire in Lebanon, insisting Israel has a duty to defend itself.
Anis Abla, head of Lebanon's Civil Defence Centre in Marjayoun, near the Israeli border, said they were completely unprepared for war.
"Our equipment is very primitive and there is a shortage of all tools, such as fire suits and extinguisher cylinders," he said. — AFP
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