Fighting has only intensified amid the rubble of northern Gaza, where Israel had previously said its military objectives had been largely met, Reuters reports.

In the south, Israeli forces storming Khan Younis advanced in recent days to the city centre, and on Wednesday were using bulldozers to destroy a road near the home of the Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Al-Sinwar, resident Abu Abdallah told Reuters.

Hospitals in the north have largely stopped functioning altogether. In the south, they have been overrun by dead and wounded, carried in by the dozen throughout the day and night.

“Doctors including myself are stepping over the bodies of children to treat children who will die,” Dr Chris Hook, a British physician deployed with medical charity MSF at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, told Reuters.

Israel says it has been encouraging increased aid to Gaza through Egypt’s border, and is announcing daily four-hour pauses in operations near Rafah to help civilians reach it. The UN says cumbersome inspections and insecurity limit aid flows.