Israel has stepped up attacks on Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip and sent tanks west, prompting accusations from Jordan that its field hospital in the city was badly damaged by nearby shelling.

The Jordanian army said on Wednesday it held Israel responsible for a “flagrant violation of international law” over the damage to the facility.

Elsewhere in the city, people in and around Nasser Hospital were forced to flee as Israeli tanks approached the district overnight after the Israeli army said it had come under fire in the area.

Palestinian health authorities said at least seven people were killed in Israeli airstrikes that damaged homes near the hospital.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, at least 24,448 people have been killed in the Israeli attack on Gaza since October 7.

At least 1,139 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, according to an Al Jazeera tally based on official figures.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from the southern Gaza Strip, said there were growing fears that Nasser Hospital could soon become inoperable, as has been the case with several other facilities attacked by Israeli forces since the start of the war .

“The vast majority of health facilities were attacked, destroyed and so badly damaged that they were completely out of service,” he said.

Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy said additional field hospitals were expected in the coming days.

“These were of course made necessary by Hamas’ strategic militarization of existing hospitals in the Gaza Strip,” he said.

Hamas has repeatedly denied using hospitals as cover.

Israel also announced Wednesday that it had killed six Palestinian militants in the southern Gaza Strip.

In a statement, the military said its latest operation resulted in the death of counterintelligence officer Bilal Nofal and “significantly impacts the terrorist organization’s ability to develop and improve its capabilities.”

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Under a deal brokered by Qatar and France, urgently needed aid and medicine have arrived in the Egyptian town of El Arish, near the border with the Gaza Strip.

The International Committee of the Red Cross welcomed the agreement, which includes the delivery of 61 tons of medicine and food to the enclave, calling it a “much-needed moment of relief.”

Aid groups said Israel’s war on Gaza had left the population struggling with starvation and a growing risk of disease as supplies ran out.

On Wednesday, Mohammed Mustafa, head of the Palestine Investment Fund, said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that rebuilding homes in Gaza would cost at least $15 billion, excluding basic infrastructure and hospitals.

“If the war in Gaza continues, more people will probably die from hunger or starvation than from war,” Mustafa said.

In early January, Israel announced it was scaling back operations in the northern Gaza Strip and launching a new phase of lower-intensity bombing.

However, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Rafah in southern Gaza, said this did not appear to be reflected on the ground.

“The attacks across the Gaza Strip have not stopped in recent hours, despite Israel saying they are entering an entirely new phase of low-intensity bombing,” he said.

“We can see that the death toll and civilian casualties continue to rise, with over 163 Palestinians killed in the last 24 hours,” he said, citing Palestinian authorities.