At least 20 Palestinians killed

GAZA, Dec 19 (Reuters/AP): Israeli missiles and air strikes on the Rafah area in southern Gaza struck three houses killing at least 20 Palestinians, Gaza health officials said on Tuesday.

Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have crammed into Rafah on Gaza's border with Egypt to escape Israeli bombardments further north, despite fears that they will also not be safe there.

Early on Tuesday residents in Khan Younis, a city also in southern Gaza, reported fierce gun battles between militant Hamas fighters and Israeli forces. Israeli tanks and planes bombed areas near the city centre, residents said.

A World Health Organization official said on Monday that the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza that Israeli troops raided last week is no longer functioning and patients including babies have been evacuated,

"We cannot afford to lose any hospitals," said Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative for Gaza. Peeperkorn also said about 4,000 displaced people taking refuge in the grounds of the Nasser medical complex in Khan Younis were at risk as Israel pursues military operations there.

The Gaza health ministry said on Monday that 19,453 Palestinians had been killed and 52,286 wounded in the Israeli assault on the Hamas-ruled enclave in more than two months of warfare.

Israel raids functioning

hospital in Gaza's north

Israeli forces raided one of the last functioning hospitals in Gaza's north and bombarded the south with airstrikes that killed at least 28 Palestinians, pressing ahead with their offensive Tuesday with renewed backing from the United States, despite rising international alarm.

The air and ground war, launched in response to Hamas' Oct. 7 attack into Israel, has killed nearly 20,000 Palestinians, displaced some 1.9 million, demolished much of northern Gaza and sparked attacks on U.S. and Israeli targets across the region.