Palestinians flee Gaza City as Israel launches ground assault

After days of ferocious bombing and artillery fire, IDF troops have now established a foothold on the outskirts of the city - which is home to more than a million Palestinians.

It means hundreds and thousands of residents will be ordered to evacuate the city and head to shelters in southern Gaza.

Israel's defence minister approved the plan to expand its military offensive, which has already killed at least 60,000 people, to Gaza City on Tuesday, a move which has been widely condemned by its allies.

But the Israeli government says the offensive was necessary to "remove Hamas", as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looked to "shorten the timelines" for seizing what he described as "the last terror strongholds" in Gaza.

Earlier, Israel confirmed plans to call up 60,000 reservists ahead of the offensive.

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The UN warned the displacement of more Palestinians would have "horrific humanitarian impacts" for a population on the verge of mass hunger and famine.

Earlier this month, Netanyahu's office released a five-step plan detailing how it intends to end the fighting in Gaza by taking full control of the region.

"The IDF will prepare to take control of Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat zones," the statement read, going on to detail Israel's "principles for ending the war."

"An absolute majority of Cabinet ministers believed that the alternative plan presented to the Cabinet would not achieve the defeat of Hamas or the return of the abductees," the statement continued.

It comes as Hamas reportedly agreed to the latest proposal for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal with Israel.

Egyptian and Qatari mediators had been holding talks with the militant group in their latest effort to broker a ceasefire with Israel in the Gaza Strip.

In its latest statement, Hamas said Israel's onslaught showed "disregard" for the new ceasefire proposal and instead continued the "brutal war against innocent civilians in Gaza City".

Israel's intensification of hostilities "risk worsening an already catastrophic situation" for Gaza's 2.1 million population", International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned.

Gaza's Hamas-run Civil Defence agency says the latest Israeli strikes had killed 25 people across the territory on Wednesday.

Among those killed were three children and their parents whose home in the Badr area of Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, was bombed, it said.

Speaking at a televised briefing on Wednesday, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Brigadier General Effie Defrin said Israel was "not waiting" to begin the operation.

He said: "We will deepen the damage to Hamas in Gaza City, a stronghold of governmental and military terror for the terrorist organisation.

"We will deepen the damage to the terror infrastructure above and below the ground and sever the population's dependence on Hamas."

'Illegal and immoral'

Teenager Iddo Elam's refused to be drafted into the Israeli military as up to 60,000 reservists are being called up.

He has been previously been to prison over his refusal to enlist, despite it being law in Israel.

On Wednesday, he told Lewis Goodall he refused to join the IDF because he sees the "genocidal war" as "illegal and immoral" as well as being a threat to the security of Palestinians and his own safety.

"At the end of the day, when we continue killing, we are talking about more than tens of thousands of children, women and men in Gaza, when we continue the occupation, and we're talking about completely occupying the Gaza Strip, we're talkign about creating more and more hate, more and more generations that will not be able to change reality for the better".

He added that the war is "very close" to killing the remaining living hostages.