Israeli jets intensified attacks on central Gaza on Sunday, residents and medics said, as battles raged through the rubble of towns and refugee camps in a war that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said would take "many more months" to end.
Netanyahu's comments signal no let-up in a campaign that has killed many thousands and levelled much of Gaza, while his vow to restore Israeli control over the enclave's border with Egypt raises new questions over an eventual two-state solution.
Air strikes pounded al-Maghazi and al-Bureij in the centre of Gaza, killing 10 people in one house and driving more to flee to Rafah on the border with Egypt from front lines where Israeli tanks are battling Hamas fighters.
A Red Crescent video published on Sunday showed rescuers working in the dark to carry an injured child from smoking rubble in central Gaza. Six people died in a strike on the village of Al-Mughraqa outside Gaza City, health officials said.
As 2023 drew to a close, Palestinians in Gaza prayed for a ceasefire but had little hope the new year would be better.
"In 2024 I wish to go back to the wreckage of my home, pitch a tent and live there," said Abu Abdullah al-Agha, a middle- aged Palestinian man whose house in Khan Younis was destroyed and who lost a young niece and nephew in an air strike.
Israel's air and artillery bombardment has killed more than 21,800 people according to health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza, with many more feared dead in the rubble, and pushed nearly all its 2.3 million people from their homes.
Palestinian health ministry casualty figures do not differentiate between fighters and civilians but the ministry has said 70% of Gaza's dead are women and under-18s. Israel disputes Palestinian casualty figures and says it has killed 8,000 fighters.
Israel blockaded most food, fuel and medicine after the Oct. 7 attack. It said on Sunday it was ready to let ships from some Western countries deliver aid directly to Gaza's shores after security checks in Cyprus.
Gemma Connell, an official with the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, said many of the tens of thousands of people fleeing to Rafah had no possessions and nowhere to sleep.
"I just am so fearful that the amount of deaths that we've been seeing is going to increase exponentially both because of this renewed offensive but also because of these conditions which are literally unbelievable," she said.
The United States, Israel's main ally, has urged it to scale down the war and European states have signalled alarm at the extent of Palestinian civilian suffering.
However Netanyahu's comments on Saturday, when he said he would not resign despite opinion polls showing his government is broadly unpopular and defended his security record despite the Oct. 7 attack, indicate there will be no easing any time soon.
He said the "the war is at its height" and Israel would have to retake control of Gaza's border with Egypt - an area now crammed with civilians who have fled the carnage across the rest of the enclave.
Retaking the border could also constitute a de facto reversal of Israel's 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, raising new questions over the future of the enclave and prospects for a Palestinian state.
Israel's hard-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich fuelled concerns about the offensive's aims by calling on Sunday for Palestinians to leave Gaza and make way for Israelis who could "make the desert bloom".
That clashed with the official Israeli government position that Gazans will be able to return to their homes. Smotrich and other hardline coalition ministers have been excluded from the core war cabinet, but have pushed
to take part in decisions about the conflict.
In his last comments as Israeli Foreign Minister before switching to the energy portfolio on Sunday, Eli Cohen said the border was the likely source of weaponry Hamas had obtained over recent years.
Senior Palestinian Authority official Hussein al-Sheikh in the Israeli-occupied West Bank said via social media that Israel taking over the border was evidence of a decision "to completely return the occupation".
"We moved here from Khan Younis on the basis that Rafah was a safe place. There is no space in Rafah as it is overcrowded with displaced," said Umm Mohammed, 45, a displaced Palestinian woman sheltering by the border.
"If they control the border, where will people go?" she asked, saying this would be "a disaster".
The war risks morphing into a wider regional conflict involving Hamas ally Iran and groups Tehran supports across the Middle East.
Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah have exchanged regular cross-border fire, with the Israeli military saying it struck targets in Lebanon on Sunday. Israel has hit targets in Syria. And Iran-backed groups have attacked US targets in Iraq.
Yemen's Houthi group, which has been attacking shipping in the Red Sea for weeks in what it calls a response to Israel's war in Gaza, attacked a Maersk cargo ship on Saturday and Sunday, the US military said.
US naval helicopters sank three of the four small boats the Houthis had used in Sunday's attack and drove the fourth back to shore, the military said.
Israel says 174 of its military personnel have been killed in the Gaza fighting but that its operations are making progress, including by destroying some Hamas tunnels under the enclave.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad have said they continue to target Israeli forces operating in the enclave.
Region
Israeli jets pound central Gaza as Netanyahu indicates longer war
Six reported killed in village outside Gaza City, Palestinians have little hope of a better 2024, Israeli minister calls for Palestinians to leave Gaza
A girl mourns the death of her relatives who were killed by Israeli bombardment, at the European Hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, on Sunday. AFP
The bodies of the two girls killed by Israeli bombardment arrive at the European Hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, on Sunday. AFP
A child reacts as he lies on the ground following what the Palestine Red Crescent Society says was an Israeli shelling in a location given as Nuseirat camp, Deir Al-Balah, Gaza, in this screengrab taken from a handout video released on Saturday. Palestine Red Crescent Society/Handout via REUTERS
Suzan Khader, a displaced Palestinian woman from Gaza City, inside her tent in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Sunday. REUTERS
Muna Al-Sawaf, a displaced Palestinian girl from Gaza City, holds her cat as she stands outside her family tent in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Sunday. REUTERS
Palestinian children sit in a wheelchair while they make their way to collect water in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Sunday. REUTERS
A boys sits as displaced Palestinians, who fled their homes due to Israeli strikes, shelter in a tent camp in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Sunday. REUTERS
Abu Abdullah Al-Agha, a displaced Palestinian from Khan Younis, builds a makeshift table outside his tent in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Sunday. REUTERS
Sleem Helles, a displaced Palestinian from Gaza City, looks on as he stands outside his tent in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Sunday. REUTERS
A child is held as displaced Palestinians, who fled their homes due to Israeli strikes, shelter in a tent camp in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Sunday. REUTERS
A man sleeps next to people sitting outside tents where displaced Palestinians are camped outside the European Hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, on Sunday. AFP
Smoke rises over Gaza at sunset as seen from southern Israel, on Sunday. REUTERS
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their homes due to Israeli strikes, shelter in a tent camp on the eve of the new year of 2024, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Sunday. REUTERS
This aerial view shows the tent camps of displaced Palestinians in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip close to the border with Egypt on Sunday. AFP