Gaza conditions worsen as Israel widens offensive

Displaced Palestinians who fled Khan Yunis set up camp in Rafah. Pic/AP

Israel's widening air and ground offensive in southern Gaza has displaced tens of thousands more Palestinians and worsened the enclave's dire humanitarian conditions, with the fighting preventing distribution of food, water and medicine outside a tiny sliver of southern Gaza and new military evacuation orders squeezing people into ever-smaller areas of the south.

Israel's widening air and ground offensive in southern Gaza has displaced tens of thousands more Palestinians and worsened the enclave's dire humanitarian conditions, with the fighting preventing distribution of food, water and medicine outside a tiny sliver of southern Gaza and new military evacuation orders squeezing people into ever-smaller areas of the south.

The UN said 1.87 million people - more than 80 per cent of Gaza's population - have been driven from their homes since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. The UN also says that all telecom services were shut down due to cuts in the main fiber routes.

The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll in the territory has surpassed 16,200, with more than 42,000 wounded, 70 per cent of whom were women and children.

16,248
No. of deaths registered in Gaza

Hamas committed sexual crimes

A man hiding in a pit during the October 7 Hamas assault in Israel said he heard someone screaming she was being raped. Elsewhere, a combat paramedic saw the body of a woman with her pants pulled down. An army reservist said some women were found wearing just bloodied underwear. Such accounts show that sexual assault was part of an atrocities-filled rampage by Hamas and other Gaza militants.

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