Israel launches airstrikes on Gaza as war grinds on

Israel launched air strikes on Gaza Thursday and the war ground on, despite comments Sunday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the "intense phase" of the conflict was nearing an end.

Israeli air strikes overnight and early Thursday killed at least five people in Gaza City, said the Hamas-ruled territory's civil defense agency and Al-Mamdani hospital medics.

One person was killed when a warplane bombed a house in Beit Lahia, paramedics said.

Heavy fighting, artillery shelling and helicopter fire were reported Thursday around northern Gaza's Shujayia market, as well as approaching Israeli ground vehicles.

Hamas' press office in Gaza reported "a significant displacement of residents" there and said people "are fleeing to areas of refuge in Gaza City that are already overcrowded."

An anonymous witness told AFP the situation was "very difficult and frightening in Shujayia after the arrival of occupation (Israeli) vehicles and air fire.

"Residents are running through the streets in terror... a number of wounded and martyrs lie in the streets."

Shelling also targeted Gaza City, sending plumes of smoke into the sky, and Israeli forces blew up several buildings in far-southern Rafah, witnesses said.

The Israeli military also said it had "attacked terrorists who were in a school complex in Khan Younis" in the south, where the civil defense agency said it had recovered several bodies.

U.S. officials including Secretary of State Antony Blinken have voiced hope a Gaza ceasefire could also lead to a reduction in hostilities on the Lebanese border.

However, months of talks towards a truce and hostage release deal have so far failed as Israel has rejected Hamas demands for a permanent end to fighting and full troop withdrawal.

- 'Beyond anything I've seen' -

The war started with Hamas' October 7 attack on southern Israel, which allegedly resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

The militants also seized about 250 captives, 116 of whom remain in Gaza although the Israeli army says 42 are dead.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,765 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from Gaza's health ministry.

The war and siege have triggered a dire humanitarian crisis, with Gaza hospitals struggling to function, and food, drinking water and other essentials hard to come by.

USAID officials said Wednesday that just 1,000 of the 7,000 tons of aid shipped from Cyprus to Gaza had been distributed, blaming looting and security problems.

Gaza's humanitarian crisis is intense, said U.S. doctors and nurses returning from the territory, who reported patients in the few remaining hospitals were dying in large numbers.

One of the volunteer medics, former U.S. army combat surgeon Adam Hamawy, said he had worked in many war-torn and natural disaster-hit countries in the past 30 years.

"But the level of civilian casualties that I experienced was beyond anything I'd seen before," the 54-year-old told AFP.

"Most of our patients were children under the age of 14," he said. "This has nothing to do with your political views."