After days of relentless bombardment from the air, the Israeli army has now intensified its ground campaign, as the Palestinian death toll climbed to over 8,000 amid UN warning that civil order was “starting to break down” in the besieged territory.

Afghan Voice Agency (AVA) - Monitoring: Despite calls for a humanitarian ceasefire and outrage across the Muslim world, Israel has intensified the war triggered by Hamas’s raid more than three weeks ago.

The health ministry in Gaza says the unrelenting retaliatory Israeli bombardment has killed more than 8,000 people, mainly civilians and half of them children.

Meanwhile, Israel’s army said it was currently in “stage two” of their invasion.

In a signal of its intent to encircle Gaza’s main city on Sunday, Tel Aviv published pictures of battle tanks on the Palestinian enclave’s western coast 48 hours after ordering expanded ground incursions across its eastern border.

As well as the Israeli military’s pictures of tanks, some images online appeared to show Israeli soldiers waving an Israeli flag deep inside Gaza.

On Sunday, the Israeli military said it had struck another 450 targets within the past 24 hours and that it was increasing the presence of its ground forces in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu steeled the nation for a “long and difficult war” ahead as the Red Cross voiced shock at the “intolerable” human suffering inside Gaza.
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has said Israel was attacking “above the ground and below”, alluding to Hamas’s sprawling tunnel network.

Israeli fighter jets again dropped leaflets over Gaza City on Saturday, warning residents that the northern area was now a “battlefield” and they should “evacuate immediately”.

UN chief Antonio Guterres said the situation in Gaza was “growing more desperate by the hour” as casualties increased and essential supplies of food, water, medicine and shelter dwindled.

He reiterated appeals for a ceasefire to end the “nightmare”.
Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, has also voiced shock at the “intolerable level of human suffering” in Gaza and urged all sides to de-escalate.

“This is a catastrophic failure that the world must not tolerate.”
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, on Sunday, said “thousands of people” entered several of its warehouses and distribution centers in Gaza to get basic survival items like wheat flour and hygiene supplies.

Meanwhile, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday that reports the Palestinian Red Crescent had received warnings from Israeli authorities to immediately evacuate the al-Quds hospital in the Gaza Strip were “deeply concerning”.