Deployment of Israeli troops in parts of Gaza, despite calls to revive a January truce with Hamas militants, comes alongside a deadly flare-up in Lebanon and missiles fired from Yemen.
AFP was unable to independently verify the figure. Gaza’s civil defence agency said separately, citing its own records, that the death toll had topped 50,000 people.
Israeli troops on Sunday encircled Tal al-Sultan in Rafah, the military said in a statement, adding its objective was to “dismantle terrorist infrastructure and eliminate” militants there.
Rafah, in southern Gaza, had already been the target of a major Israeli offensive about a year ago.
“I’m here to get rice for the children, but it’s gone,“ said Saed Abu al-Jidyan, who like Bardawil had fled his home in northern Gaza.
With fuel unable to enter the territory, AFP images showed Gazans collecting books from the bombed-out Islamic University in Gaza City to use for cooking fires.
Three weeks ago Israel blocked the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza and cut electricity in a bid to force Hamas to accept the Israeli terms for an extension of the ceasefire and release the 58 hostages still held by Palestinian militants.
On Friday, Defence Minister Israel Katz said he had ordered the army to “seize more territory in Gaza”, warning Israel could annex it if Hamas failed to heed Israel’s demands for the next steps in the truce process.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas will be in Israel and the occupied West Bank on Monday to press for “an immediate return to the full implementation of the ceasefire-hostage release agreement”, her diplomatic service said.
The Israeli military on Sunday said it was conducting operations in Beit Hanun, northern Gaza, where “fighter jets struck several Hamas targets”.
Air force jets also struck the emergency department at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, killing another Hamas political bureau official, Ismail Barhoum, as he underwent treatment, the group and Israel said.
Bardawil, Israel’s military said, had “directed the strategic and military planning” of Hamas in Gaza and his “elimination further degrades Hamas’s military and government capabilities”, it added.
- Lebanon strikes -
According to the Gaza health ministry, at least 637 Palestinians have been killed in the renewed Israeli assault since Tuesday.
Israel’s military on Sunday said it had “attacked and eliminated” a Hezbollah member “in the area of Aita al-Shaab”, southern Lebanon.
Israel said it attacked in response to rocket fire, which Iran-backed Hezbollah -- an ally of Hamas -- denied responsibility for.
Early Sunday, Israel said it had intercepted another missile from Yemen, where the Iran-backed Huthis say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians.
Demonstrators on Sunday scuffled with police outside the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem, AFP images showed.
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