Israel-Hamas conflict | Israel strikes Gaza after U.N. calls for more aid

Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since 2008. Israeli forces have killed more than 400 Palestinians in Gaza since the start of the conflict, including more than 100 children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Israel presses Gaza offensive as UN demands more aid be allowed into besieged Palestinian territory, with 400+ killed in Israeli bombardments and 80% of Gaza's population displaced.

Israel pressed its Gaza offensive on December 23, with Hamas authorities reporting heavy shelling in several cities hours after world powers demanded more aid be allowed into the besieged Palestinian territory.

The Hamas-controlled health ministry said 18 people were killed in a strike on a house in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, as other targets were hit up and down the strip.

The Israeli army said late Friday it had destroyed a “strategic” tunnel complex, a “Hamas headquarters and eliminated terrorists” in operations in Gaza City, where its forces have been locked in street-to-street fighting with Hamas gunmen.

The health ministry in Gaza, which the Islamist movement Hamas has ruled since 2007, said more than 400 people had been killed in Israeli bombardments over 48 hours.

The latest violence comes after the UN Security Council approved a resolution demanding “immediate, safe and unhindered” deliveries of life-saving aid be rushed to Gaza “at scale”.

The resolution was passed after members wrangled for days over its wording.

At Washington’s insistence, the Security Council watered down some provisions, and avoided calling for a ceasefire that would stop the 11-week-old war, which began with Hamas’s bloody raids into Israel on October 7.