Israel Says It's Attacking Throughout Gaza

The Israeli military said Sunday its ground offensive had expanded to every part of Gaza, and it ordered more evacuations in the south while vowing that operations there against Hamas would have "no less strength" than its shattering ones in the north. Heavy bombardment followed evacuation orders, the AP reports, and Palestinians said they were running out of places to go in the sealed-off territory bordering Israel and Egypt. Many of Gaza's 2.3 million people are crammed into the south after Israel ordered civilians to leave the north in the early days of the war, which was sparked by the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack in Israel that killed about 1,200, mostly civilians.

The United Nations estimates that 1.8 million Gazans have been displaced, and nearly 958,000 of them are in 99 UN facilities in the south, an official said. After dark, gunfire and shelling were heard in the central town of Deir al-Balah as flares lit the sky. In Gaza's second-largest city of Khan Younis, Israeli drones buzzed overhead. UN human rights chief Volker Türk urged an end to the war, saying civilian suffering was "too much to bear." The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll there since Oct. 7 has surpassed 15,500, with more than 41,000 wounded. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths but said 70% of the dead were women and children, per the AP.

A Health Ministry spokesman asserted that hundreds had been killed or wounded since a weeklong cease-fire ended Friday. "The majority of victims are still under the rubble," Ashraf al-Qidra said. Fears of a wider conflict intensified, as the US said a warship and multiple commercial ships came under attack in the Red Sea. And hopes for another temporary truce in Gaza were fading, though White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told NBC's Meet the Press that the US was working "really hard" for a resumption of negotiations. But Israel has called its negotiators home, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the war will continue until "all its goals" are achieved. One is to remove Hamas from power in Gaza.

(More Israel-Hamas war stories.)