The Israeli army said troops have reached the southernmost point of their ground invasion of Gaza so far as they intensified operations across the south of the Palestinian territory, AFP reports.

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.

In Khan Younis, 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”.

“The soldiers eliminated dozens of terrorists in close-quarters combat and with the assistance of tank fire and air support,” it said. Soldiers raided the “Martyr’s Outpost” of Hamas’s Khan Younis brigade and the offices of its commanders, seizing a weapons cache, it added.

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?”