UNDEFINED – Israeli forces continued intensified attacks on southern Gaza’s largest city and a key refugee camp after the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry reported that more than 21,000 people had been killed in 11 weeks of war.

The ongoing air strikes and expansion of operations in the south came as the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Wednesday that Gaza’s population was in “great danger” and France’s president called for a long-term ceasefire.

Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Wednesday that attacks on a key refugee camp in the Gaza Strip had entered their third day and that an additional brigade had been deployed to the southern town of Khan Yunis, where there has been recent heavy violence Fighting came into the city.

He also hinted at a possible “expansion of fighting in the north” along the Lebanese border, where there have been repeated exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters since the Gaza war broke out.

After a visit to the border earlier in the day, army chief Herzi Halevi said the military had “approved plans for a variety of contingencies and we must be ready to strike if necessary.”

Israel has repeatedly vowed to continue its campaign to destroy Hamas in retaliation for the bloody Oct. 7 attack that killed about 1,140 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Palestinian militants also took around 250 hostages, 129 of whom are still in captivity, according to Israel.

Israel’s relentless bombardment and ground invasion have killed at least 21,110 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.

The army announced the deaths of three more soldiers on Thursday morning, bringing the total number of soldiers killed in Gaza to 167.

“Permanent ceasefire”

Calls for an end to hostilities continued to mount on Wednesday, with French President Emmanuel Macron “emphasizing the need to work towards a lasting ceasefire” in a telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

He also expressed his “deepest concern at the very high civilian casualties” in Gaza, a statement from his office said, adding that France would work with Jordan “in the coming days” to carry out humanitarian operations in the area .

Since Israel imposed a siege at the start of the war, Gaza has faced severe shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reiterated calls for a ceasefire on Wednesday.

He called on the international community to “take urgent action to alleviate the grave danger facing the population of Gaza, which threatens the ability of humanitarian workers to help people with terrible injuries, acute hunger and a high risk of disease.”

In the same statement, the WHO said its staff reported that “hungry people stopped our convoys again today in the hope of finding food.”

“NO SAFE ZONES”

According to the United Nations, an estimated 1.9 million people have been displaced from the Gaza Strip.

One of them, Iman al-Masry, recently gave birth to quadruplets in a hospital in the southern Gaza Strip after fleeing her family home in the territory’s devastated north at the start of the war.

The trip “interfered with my pregnancy,” the 28-year-old said Wednesday, giving birth to two girls and two boys via cesarean section on Dec. 18.

She was quickly asked to leave the hospital to make room for other patients, but had to leave behind a son who was too frail to leave with them.

“They are very slim,” she said of the toddlers from a cramped schoolroom in Deir al-Balah that has been converted into an animal shelter.

“As there is a shortage of…baby food, I try to breastfeed them, but there is no nutritious food I can eat to breastfeed the three babies,” she added.

Not far away, in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp, a United Nations-run school that also served as a shelter was hit by shells during the night.

“They tell you that there are green zones and other zones with other colors. These are all rumors, there are no safe zones in Gaza,” a man told AFP on Wednesday, without giving his name.

‘DIRECT ACTION’

The war has raised fears of a broader regional conflict, with deadly cross-border clashes between Israel and Hezbollah and recent attacks on ships by Houthi rebels in Yemen acting in solidarity with Hamas. All three militant groups are supported by Iran.

Israel wants Hezbollah – which it says supports Hamas – to retreat further from the border and threatens to use overwhelming force if necessary to achieve that goal.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned Israel on Wednesday that it or its allies would take “direct action” to avenge the killing of top commander Razi Mousavi, who died Monday in a rocket attack in Syria blamed on Israel. local news agency Mehr reported.

Meanwhile, a drone crashed near a village in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, the Israeli army said on Thursday. An Iraqi faction affiliated with Hamas claimed responsibility for an attack in the area.

Violence has also occurred in the occupied West Bank, with more than 310 Palestinians killed by Israeli troops or settlers since October 7, the health ministry there said.

The ministry said six people were killed in an Israeli operation in a refugee camp in the northern West Bank on Wednesday. The army said it attacked the Nur Shams camp from the air.

According to the official Wafa news agency, army operations continued overnight into Thursday, particularly in Jenin and Ramallah.