Israeli forces encircle southern Gaza city

Israeli forces were encircling southern Gaza's main city on Wednesday, battling Hamas militants through streets and buildings in some of the most intense combat of the two-month war.

The focus of the conflict has shifted into the besieged territory's south following fierce fighting and bombardment that reduced much of the north to rubble and forced nearly two million people to flee their homes.

Israeli tanks, armored personnel carriers and bulldozers were seen on Tuesday near the city of Khan Yunis, forcing already displaced civilians to pack up and flee again, witnesses told Agence France-Presse.

"We have secured many Hamas strongholds in the northern Gaza Strip, and now we are operating against its strongholds in the south," Israel's army chief Herzi Halevi said late Tuesday.

Several Hamas commanders were killed in an air strike near the Indonesia Hospital, the Israeli military said early Wednesday on X.

Sources in Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian terrorist group, told AFP their fighters were battling Israeli troops early Wednesday in a bid to prevent them from breaking into Khan Yunis and surrounding areas.

According to the Hamas-run government media office, dozens of people were killed and injured in heavy strikes on areas east of Khan Yunis.

Meanwhile, areas in the central and northern Gaza Strip were still coming under bombardment, according to Hamas.

The Hamas-run health ministry said air strikes on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed six people and injured 14 others.

In northern Gaza, the Israeli military said it had encircled the Jabalia refugee camp and also raided a Hamas Internal Security Forces command and control center.

It said the number of Israeli soldiers killed since the war began had risen to 82.

According to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, several people were killed and injured in Israeli strikes on Jabalia.

Not any safer

An estimated 1.9 million people are displaced in Gaza ­— roughly three-quarters of the population, according to UN figures.

Israel had previously told civilians in the north of the densely populated Gaza Strip to seek shelter in the south of the territory, with many fleeing to Khan Yunis believing it would be safer.

As the war expands, Israel has told people to move even further south, sparking "panic, fear and anxiety," according to Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

Israel declared war on Hamas after the terrorist group's 7 October attacks that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities, and saw around 240 hostages taken.

The latest toll from the Hamas-run government media office said 16,248 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, had been killed.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and free 138 hostages still held after scores were freed during a short-lived truce.