As we’ve been reporting, much of Israel’s focus for its military campaign in the Gaza Strip now appears to be on the areas surrounding Khan Younis, in the south of the enclave.

Residents there have described air strikes as the heaviest since the war began, and Israel has issued evacuation orders for several of its districts.

Located about 6 miles (9.5km) from the Rafah crossing with Egypt, Khan Younis is the largest city in southern Gaza, with a pre-war population of about 400,000.

However, since the war began many Gazans have fled to the city and its surroundings, escaping Israel’s military campaign in the north.

This has placed massive strain on the city’s infrastructure, with people desperately in need of food, water and accommodation.

Khan Younis focus of Israeli operationpublished at 09:38 Greenwich Mean Time 4 December 2023

09:38 GMT 4 December 2023

Yolande Knell
BBC Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

While Israel’s military says its forces are already confronting Hamas fighters across the Gaza Strip, defence analysts here see the latest events in the south of the territory as part of a build-up to a full ground operation there.

Public Kan Radio points out that many Israeli air strikes are aimed at Khan Younis, where it is believed that top Hamas leaders are hiding out, including the head of the organisation in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, leader of the military wing.

The Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reports the fighting in Khan Younis is expected to be “fairly tough”, adding that the situation there is complicated not only by the hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians who found shelter there after fleeing from fighting in the north, but also that some Israeli hostages are believed to be held there.

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

The Israel Defense Force (IDF) is reporting that three of its troops were killed during fighting in Gaza yesterday.

In a statement published this morning, the IDF confirmed the deaths of a 22-year-old sergeant first class, a 19-year-old sergeant and a 36-year-old sergeant-major.

The deaths bring the number of Israeli troops killed in the conflict to 75 since it began.

It's being reported in Israeli media that 21-year-old Jonathan Samerano, who has been missing since 7 October, is dead.

He had been attending the Supernova music festival in southern Israel when Hamas attacked from the Gaza Strip. His parents had been told to assume he had been taken hostage and was in Gaza.

The reports say the Israel Defense Forces have informed the family of his death.

Yolande Knell
BBC Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

In the crowded south of the Gaza Strip, heavy bombardment followed the evacuation orders given by the Israeli military.

A spokesman has said that operations there against Hamas will be of “no less strength” than those in the north of the Palestinian territory – which have caused widespread destruction.

While the US, Israel’s closest ally had called on Israel to avoid more harm to civilians, a hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis says it’s been overwhelmed with casualties.

A UN official in Gaza says Palestinians are running out of places to flee to. The UN estimates that 1.8 million Gazans have now been displaced.

Hopes have faded for another temporary truce in Gaza, after one that held for seven days fell apart last week.

Israel has said it will continue the war until all its goals are achieved – including removing Hamas from power.

A top Hamas official has said that resuming talks on further exchanges of Israeli hostages that it holds for Palestinian prisoners must be tied to a permanent ceasefire.

James Elder, spokesman for United Nations children's agency Unicef, says there are serious concerns about the impact of Israeli military action in southern Gaza.

"There's been a really strong message that's come from the highest levels that what happened in the north - the horror people endured - must not be allowed to happen in the south. Well, that is absolutely the case," Elder said.

He estimated that bombs fall "every 10 minutes".

For people in southern Gaza, the danger is now combined with exhaustion: "When you've been displaced three or four times under bombardment [people are] fatigued, exhausted, trying to keep it together for their children - they have nowhere to go," Elder said.

"When I see child after child wheeled in, parents screaming on stretchers with horrendous wounds of war one after the other, hour after the other - they're not safe in hospitals, they're not safe in shelters," he added.

"There is no way I feel safe, no-one else feels safe."

Image source, Reuters

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says its ground offensive in Gaza is expanding "against Hamas centres in all of the Gaza Strip", according to its chief spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.

Hagari added that soldiers were coming "face-to-face" with Palestinian fighters.

This morning, the IDF issued new orders to Gazans to evacuate about 20 areas in the central Gaza Strip, posting a map on social media, external with arrows pointing to areas further south where civilians should head to.

A spokesperson for the UN's children's agency Unicef said he was "running out of ways to describe the horrors hitting children" in Gaza as the conflict continues.

"This is the worst bombardment of the war right now in south Gaza," James Elder said.

As we've been reporting, Khan Younis experienced the heaviest bombardment yesterday since the start of the war, and the United Nations' Unicef organisation described the overwhelmed al-Nasser hospital there as a "war zone".

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Let's turn back to what's happening in southern Gaza, where Israeli ground forces have been pushing into.

Sari Bashi, a programme director at Human Rights Watch, told the BBC's Newsday programme that Israel has resumed its ground offensive and air strikes "without adequate precautions being taken to protect civilians".

It has been "telling people to flee when there’s no safe place to go to, no safe way to get there" and giving "not effective warning”.

“The Israeli military put on social media QR Codes inviting people who don’t have electricity or the internet to somehow scan a bar code to see where they’re supposed to go, or later they corrected the maps because they were wrong," said Bashi.

“There are reports of people being killed as they try to evacuate. There are continued airstrikes in the areas in which the Israeli military told people to evacuate to. There’s been no guarantee, no statement that if people move to those areas they will not be bombed."

Israel's military has dismissed a recent report suggesting it had prior knowledge of Hamas's plans to attack across the border.

The New York Times published a report, external last week saying the Israeli military had known about the plan more than a year in advance following intelligence analysts' briefings, but had dismissed it as aspirational.

"It's ridiculous to try to promote any conspiracy theory," Lt Col Jonathan Conricus from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a live briefing held on X, formerly known as Twitter. "Categorically, I can deny, of course, any intention for this to happen."

But he also admitted that "the IDF failed to deliver what it was supposed to deliver - that is, protection and security - for Israelis [that day]."

The military will undertake an "extensive" review once it has "defeated Hamas", he said.

"The professional inquiry will go through everything with a fine-toothed comb... We will get to the bottom of what happened, how it happened, and how it can be prevented," he said.

A Dutch court is due to hear a case later today against the state for its role in the export of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel.

The case - brought by the Dutch arm of Oxfam, and Dutch NGOs The Rights Forum and PAX - accuses the Netherlands of being complicit in war crimes in Gaza by allowing arms exports.

The case will be heard at a district court in The Hague, at 10:00 local time, external (09:00 GMT).

Oxfam Novib director Michiel Servaes said he sees no other solution than going to court.

"We have called several times and at the highest levels for an immediate ceasefire, free access for humanitarian aid and a lasting solution that does justice to Palestinian and Israeli citizens.

"The fact that the Netherlands itself may be involved in the bombing through the supply of military equipment makes it all the more painful," he said.

In the last few hours Palestinian and Israeli news outlets have been reporting on raids conducted by Israeli forces and clashes in the occupied West Bank.

Two people were killed by Israeli troops in Qalqilya, Israeli radio network GLZ radio said, external.

Israeli troops arrested 16 Palestinians in Dheisha and at least one person in Qalqilya, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Another nine were arrested in Jenin and six in Jericho, the same agency said.

Earlier we had reported the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels as saying they had targeted Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea.

Since then, the US Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, has said one of their warships engaged and shot down three drones following those attacks.

It said the USS Carney assisted three commercial vessels - which had links to 14 nations including the UK - on Sunday after they were targeted in the Red Sea from areas of Yemen held by the Houthis.

Two of the ships were hit by missiles but there were no casualties, it added.

You can read more in our latest story here.

Israeli forces have killed a Hamas commander named Haitham Khuwajari, the military said in an X post early Monday, external.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claims Khuwajari had led a battalion that took part in Hamas's attacks on Israel on 7 October.

They also said he was in charge of security for Hamas activities at Gaza's main hospital al-Shifa, and commandeered fighting against IDF forces at Camp Shatti, a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Gaza.

The Israeli military targeted Al-Shifa two weeks ago, claiming Hamas had built an important command centre under the hospital. The US backed these claims, which Hamas rejected.

Separately, the IDF announced that three soldiers were killed in battle on Sunday.

Tessa Wong
Live page editor, Singapore

We're resuming our live coverage, and in the last few hours we've been seeing reports on social media and Palestinian news outlets of continued explosions across Gaza. This includes the south, where Israeli troops are pushing into.

Gazans had been told to move to the south earlier in the war for their safety, as Israel launched a ground offensive in the north.

But since the ceasefire ended on Friday, Israel has resumed its large-scale bombing campaign. Residents of the southern city of Khan Younis, where many of the displaced Gazans have fled to, have described it as the heaviest wave of attacks they've seen so far.

Stay with us as my colleague Kelly Ng and I bring you more updates.

We're about to pause our live coverage. Here's what you need to know about what happened today:

• Israeli forces are reported to be pushing into southern Gaza

• The US defence secretary reiterated Israel's right to defend itself, but suggested the killing of civilians would "drive them into the arms of the enemy"
• An adviser to Israel's prime minister told the BBC that Israel is making "maximum effort" to avoid killing civilians
• Residents in Khan Younis said the southern city experienced the heaviest bombardment yesterday since the start of the war

• The UN's human rights chief has said Palestinians were being "pushed more and more towards a narrow corner of what is already a very narrow territory"
• Unicef called the overwhelmed Al-Nasser hospital in Khan Younis a “war zone”
• In the wider region, the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen say they targeted two Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea

We will be keeping our main story on the events in Israel and Gaza updated here.

Image source, IDF

We reported earlier that the Israeli army radio had said that Israeli troops were pushing into southern Gaza.

Now the Chief of General Staff of the Israeli army Herzl Halevi has also indicated that Israel has begun a ground operation in the south.

"We fought strongly and thoroughly in the northern Gaza Strip, and we are also doing it now in the southern Gaza Strip," he said.

Jeremy Bowen
International Editor, reporting from Jerusalem

Israeli forces are pushing into southern Gaza around Khan Younis.

This was reported by Israeli army radio, which effectively confirms that the Israeli army had launched ground operations in southern Gaza to the north of Khan Younis.

Now they’ve always said that this is what they'll do. And the objective that they want to achieve - which is to destroy Hamas - will mean that they have to go into southern Gaza.

But there is some concern, particularly in some very strong comments from US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austen, suggesting that Israel could achieve a tactical victory but a strategic defeat, if they continue to kill civilians at the rate that they have previously. That suggestion – that they could push people into the arms and mindset of Israeli enemies - is very powerful coming from Israel’s ally.

The IDF told the BBC it was not able to confirm or elaborate upon the reports at this time.

Natasha Preskey & Jamie Ryan
BBC Verify

Israel's focus on securing the release of female hostages has raised and dashed hopes for the families of the women who are still left behind.

"She doesn't deserve to wait for the next deal, just because she's not somebody's mother or grandmother," writes Or Neko Maymon on Facebook in Hebrew.

Or is talking about 27-year-old street artist and art student Inbar Haiman, who is his partner's sister.

Image source, Portfolio magazine

Inbar was kidnapped by Hamas from the Supernova music festival in Israel on 7 October, and was seen days later in a hostage video circulated on social media, with blood on her face.

She is one of 16 women BBC Verify has identified as still being captive in Gaza.

Since her kidnap, Inbar's friends and family have been campaigning for her release, and using the hashtag #FreePink, a reference to her street artist name.

"I'm really not ready for you to take away my hope to see Inbar come back," Or wrote in another post three days ago.

Read more about her story here.

We are aware of potential developments off the coast of Yemen in the Red Sea.

The Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen say they have targeted two Israeli-linked ships.

The UK's Maritime Trade Operations - which provides security information to merchant ships - says it had received a report of a drone attack in the Red Sea, and advised vessels in the area to "exercise caution".

Separately, the Pentagon says it is "aware of reports regarding attacks on the USS Carney and commercial vessels in the Red Sea and will provide information as it becomes available."

The Red Sea is one of the most crucial trade waterways in the world, with access to the Suez canal that connects south and east Asia to the Mediterranean.

The Houthis hold power in Yemen and have repeatedly threatened Israel and its allies over its bombardment of Gaza. Last month, they said they had fired missiles and used drones to attack Israel.