Israel intensifies assault on S Gaza

KHAN YOUNIS, Dec 02 (AP/BBC): Israel pounded targets in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, intensifying a renewed offensive that followed a weeklong truce with Hamas and giving rise to renewed concerns about civilian casualties.

"This is going to be very important going forward," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday after meetings with Arab foreign ministers in Dubai, wrapping up his third Middle East tour since the war started. "It's something we're going to be looking at very closely."

Israel's attacks Saturday were focused on the Khan Younis area in southern Gaza, where the military dropped leaflets the day before warning residents to leave.

As of late Friday, however, there had been no reports of large numbers of people leaving, according to the United Nations.

"There is no place to go," lamented Emad Hajar, who fled with his wife and three children from the northern town of Beit Lahia a month ago to seek refuge in Khan Younis. "They expelled us from the north, and now they are pushing us to leave the south."

Some 2 million people - almost Gaza's entire population - are crammed into the territory's south, where Israel urged people to relocate at the war's start and has since vowed to extend its ground assault. Unable to go into north Gaza or neighboring Egypt, their only escape is to move around within the 220-square-kilometer (85-square-mile) area.

In response to U.S. calls to protect civilians, the Israeli military released an online map, but it has done more to confuse than to help.

It divides the Gaza Strip into hundreds of numbered, haphazardly drawn parcels, sometimes across roads or blocks, and asks residents to learn the number of their location in case of an eventual evacuation.

Israeli strikes kill over 175 people

in Gaza after truce ends

Israeli strikes on houses and buildings have killed at least 178 people throughout the Gaza Strip on the first hours of fighting after a weeklong truce collapsed Friday, according to the Health Ministry there. Israel said it struck more than 200 Hamas targets.

Militants in Gaza resumed firing rockets into Israel, and fighting broke out between Israel and Hezbollah militants operating along Israel's northern border with Lebanon.

Cease-fire mediator Qatar said efforts are ongoing to renew the truce, which saw Israel pause most military activity in Gaza and release 300 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for militants freeing over 100 hostages held in Gaza.

Israel says 115 adult men, 20 women and two children are still held captive.

Weeks of Israeli bombardment and a ground campaign have left homeless more than three-quarters of Gaza's 2.3 million residents, causing a humanitarian crisis as they face widespread shortages of food, water and other supplies. No trucks carrying aid entered Gaza from Egypt on Friday, Palestinians authorities said.

Up until the truce began, more than 13,300 Palestinians have been killed - roughly two-thirds of them women and minors - according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza. The toll is likely much higher. Some 1,200 Israelis were killed, mostly during Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war

US sets clearer red lines for

Israel as ceasefire ends

In the end it was a diplomatic achievement that the ceasefire lasted as long as it did. Now, after a seven-day pause, Israel and Hamas are facing their greatest military and political challenges.

For Hamas, it is the fight to survive. As long as a Hamas gunman can pull a trigger or launch a rocket into Israel it will claim to be undefeated. For all its overwhelming military power, Israel's task is more complicated.