GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, Dec  28, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - Israeli 
forces heavily bombed the besieged Gaza Strip on Thursday as the centre of 
fierce combat moves steadily south where hundreds of thousands of displaced 
Palestinians are sheltering. 

       The war, which started with Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, has 
devastated much of northern Gaza, and the bombardment and fighting has 
intensified especially in the southern city of Khan Yunis.

       The Israeli army said it had deployed an additional brigade to Khan Yunis, 
hometown of Hamas's Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar, where AFP correspondents reported 
heavy and sustained air and artillery strikes.

       The Palestinian Red Crescent society reported that shelling killed at least 
10 people near the city's Al-Amal hospital, an area where it said about 14,000 
people are sheltering.

       Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for the October 7 attack, 
which left about 1,140 people dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally 
based on Israeli figures.

       Israel's relentless aerial bombardment and ground invasion have killed at 
least 21,320 people, mostly women and children, according to Hamas-run Gaza's 
health ministry.

       UN World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for 
"urgent steps to alleviate the grave peril" facing Gaza's people, including 
"terrible injuries, acute hunger and... severe risk of disease".

       The Israeli army says 167 of its soldiers have been killed inside Gaza in 
its fight against Hamas which Israel, the United States and European Union 
consider a "terrorist" group.

       Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for the Hamas-run health ministry, on Thursday 
reported an additional 200 deaths, "including entire families", over the past 
24 hours in strikes.

       Hamas on October 7 also took 250 hostages, more than half of whom remain in 
captivity -- a source of intense anxiety for their families who protested in 
Jerusalem with the demand to "bring them home".

       The woman thought to have been the oldest female hostage, US-Israeli Judith 
Weinstein Haggai, 70, was confirmed to have died in the initial attack, her 
kibbutz community Nir Oz said Thursday.

       Nir Oz said Haggai was "murdered in the massacre", and that her body 
remains in Gaza.

       More than 80 percent of the territory's 2.4 million people have been driven 
from their homes, the UN says, and many now live in cramped shelters or 
makeshift tents in the far south, around the city of Rafah near Egypt.

       In the central al-Maghazi refugee camp, which was targeted on Sunday by a 
strike that killed at least 70 people, resident Waleed Mohammed Aeid voiced his 
pain and frustration.

       "They told us to go to Rafah, but we don't want to," he said. "Why? To go 
live in the streets there? 

       "All the neighbourhood here was evacuated. They bombed the school, but we 
didn't leave because we don't have anywhere else to go."
       
       - Quadruplets born in war -
    
       
       An Israeli siege imposed after October 7, following years of crippling 
blockade, has deprived Gazans of food, water, fuel and medicine.

       The severe shortages have been only sporadically eased by humanitarian aid 
convoys entering primarily via Egypt.

       "We are tired of everything," said Ekhlas Shnenou who fled her Gaza City 
home. "Enough with the war, enough with the pain, enough with the hunger."

       Israel said Thursday it had given preliminary approval to the Mediterranean 
island nation of Cyprus for a "maritime lifeline" to ship aid to Gaza, a plan 
in the works for more than a month.

       "There's a basic authorisation to use this route, but there are still some 
logistical problems that are waiting to be solved," said Israeli foreign 
ministry spokesman Lior Haiat.

       One of the many people displaced, 28-year-old Iman al-Masry, recently gave 
birth to quadruplets in a hospital in southern Gaza after fleeing her home in 
the devastated north.

       The arduous journey "affected my pregnancy", she said, recounting that she 
gave birth by C-section on December 18 to two girls and two boys, one of whom 
was too fragile to leave hospital.

       "They are very slim," she said, speaking in a schoolroom turned shelter in 
Deir al-Balah. "It's cold and windy and there's no bathtub... I just use wipes."

       Violence has also flared across the Israel-occupied West Bank, with at 

least 314 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces or settlers since October 7, 
according to the territory's health ministry.

       Israeli forces overnight raided money exchange shops across the West Bank 
which the military said had provided funds for armed groups.

       In Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian Authority, one man was killed by the 
troops, according to the health ministry. An AFP journalist saw Palestinians 
hurl Molotov cocktails at the soldiers.

       A UN report Thursday said the human rights situation in the West Bank was 
rapidly deteriorating and urged Israel to "end unlawful killings" against the 
Palestinian population.

       UN rights chief Volker Turk decried especially "the use of military tactics 
and weapons" in law enforcement and "the use of unnecessary or disproportionate 
force".
       
       - Mideast tensions flare -
       
       The bloodiest ever Gaza war has sharply heightened tensions between Israel 
and its long-time arch foe Iran, which supports armed groups across the Middle 
East.

       Iran blamed Israel for a missile strike in Syria on Monday that killed the 
senior Iranian military commander Razi Moussavi, whose mass funeral took place 
in Tehran on Thursday.

       The crowd chanted "Death to Israel" and "Death to America" after supreme 
leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led a prayer over the body of Moussavi, a top 
commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' foreign operations arms the 
Quds Force.

       Tehran has vowed to avenge the death of the most senior Guards general 
killed since the US assassination of Quds Force chief Qasem Soleimani in 2020.

       Israel has traded heavy cross-border fire with Iran-backed Hezbollah in 
Lebanon since the Gaza war erupted and warned it will step up military action 
unless Hezbollah militants withdraw further from the border.

       Another Iran ally, Yemen's Huthi rebel group, has launched repeated drone 
and missile attacks at Israel, which have been intercepted. It has also 
targeted ships in the Red Sea, disrupting international trade.