Fierce fighting and renewed attacks by Israel in the south of the Gaza Strip have been continuing.

“Intense Israeli bombardment from air, land, and sea continues to be reported across much of the Gaza Strip, particularly in and around Khan Younis,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Tuesday night.

There had been further civilian casualties, displacement of the population and destruction of civilian infrastructure, the OCHA said.

The Israeli army announced on Wednesday that “armed terrorist cells” had been eliminated and numerous weapons had been seized. The statement went on to say that paratroopers had “killed dozens of terrorists in Khan Younis over the past 24 hours.”

In one incident in the west of Khan Younis, soldiers encountered three gunmen who fired anti-tank missiles at them. The three men and “several other terror operatives” were killed in close-quarter combat.

Hamas’ armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, also described an attack on Israeli soldiers in the west of Khan Younis on Wednesday.

The war was triggered by the worst massacre in Israel’s history, carried out by fighters from Hamas and other extremist Palestinian organizations on October 7 in Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip. More than 1,200 people were killed on the Israeli side.

Israel responded with massive airstrikes and a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip.

According to the Hamas-controlled health authority, at least 27,585 people have been killed in the coastal strip since then. According to UN estimates, three quarters of the approximately 2.2 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip have had to flee their homes during the war.