GAZA: The Zionist army said troops reached the southernmost point of their ground invasion of Gaza so far on Thursday as they intensified operations across the south of the Palestinian territory. In Khan Yunis, southern Gaza’s main city, the army said its Givati Brigade was “fighting in the southernmost area that ground troops have operated in so far”.

Live footage from AFPTV showed smoke rising over central-southern Gaza in the afternoon. Gaza’s Hamas authorities reported 93 deaths overnight, including 16 in a strike on a house in the southern city of Rafah, where many people have fled. Umm Walid al-Zamli said she lost her children and her house. “The oldest was a second-grade girl,” she said in a choked voice. “What did they do wrong?”

Vowing to destroy Hamas, the Zionist entity has been conducting a relentless air and ground offensive that has killed at least 24,620 Palestinians, around 70 percent of them women, children and adolescents, according to health ministry figures. The war has displaced roughly 85 percent of Gaza’s 2.4 million population, the UN says. Many have crowded into shelters where they struggle to get food, water, fuel and medical care. UN agencies say improved aid access to Gaza is urgently needed as famine and disease loom.

In Gaza City in the north, displaced Palestinian Ibrahim Saada struggled to come to terms with the scene of destruction around him. “We are not part of this war and can’t bear it. We are being destroyed, dying from hunger,” he told AFP.

Officials from both sides confirmed a shipment of aid, including medicines for captives, had entered Gaza under a deal mediated by France and Qatar. The International Committee of the Red Cross said it played no role in implementing the deal, which also comprises humanitarian aid for Gazan civilians, but welcomed it as “a much-needed moment of relief”.

In the West Bank, violence has escalated to a level not seen since the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, of 2000-2005. Zionist troops and settlers have killed more than 360 Palestinians in the West Bank since Oct 7, according to the territory’s health ministry. Palestinian health officials reported a sixth death in a two-day Zionist operation in the northern city of Tulkarem and its refugee camp. The man shot dead in the camp was a civilian not involved in fighting between Zionist forces and fighters, local official Rami Elyan said.