Israel says strikes will dismantle Hamas as Palestinian death toll rises

Gaza/Jerusalem: Israel said on Tuesday it had killed dozens of Hamas fighters overnight in strikes on Gaza and that it had no intention of easing its bombardment of the besieged Palestinian enclave.

The United States urged Israel to allow more aid into Gaza, trapped in a humanitarian crisis after two weeks of intense Israeli attacks.

But there appeared to be little prospect of ceasefire any time soon in the bloodiest episode in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in decades.

The Palestinian health ministry said the death toll in Gaza has topped 5,000 in two weeks of Israeli air strikes unleashed in response to a Hamas attack in which the Islamist militant group killed more than 1,400 people - mostly civilians - in a single day.

Hamas on Monday freed two Israeli women who were among the more than 200 hostages taken during the group's Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel. They were the third and fourth hostages to be released.

Israeli tanks and troops are massed on the border between Israel and the Hamas-ruled enclave awaiting orders for an expected ground invasion - an operation that will be complicated by concerns over the hostages.

The Israeli military said it had hit more than 400 militant targets in Gaza overnight and killed dozens of Hamas fighters, including three deputy battalion commanders.

Among the targets hit was a tunnel that allowed Hamas to infiltrate Israel from the sea and Hamas command centres in mosques, it said. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

Wide areas of Gaza have been flattened by Israeli bombs, forcing more than one million residents to seek shelter elsewhere in the territory.

With food, clean water, medicine and fuel fast running out, the United Nations and aid agencies have warned of a humanitarian catastrophe and pleaded for supplies to be allowed in.

Earlier, Israeli Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi suggested Israel had no intention of curbing its strikes.

"We want to bring Hamas to a state of full dismantling," Halevi said in a statement.

"We are well prepared for the ground operations in the south," he added. "Troops who have more time are better prepared, and that is what we are doing now."

Medical officials in Gaza said dozens of Palestinians were killed or wounded overnight across the enclave, mostly in southern Gaza, due to the Israeli bombing. At least 15 houses were destroyed.

No green light

Foreign governments have expressed concern that the conflict could ignite the whole of the Middle East. Already clashes have taken place in the West Bank and along the Lebanon-Israel border.

The ruling emir of Qatar, which has tried to mediate between Israel and Hamas, urged the international community to rein in Israel in its fight against Hamas.

"We say enough. Israel shouldn't be granted an unconditional green light and unrestricted authorisation to kill," Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani said in a speech to Gulf state's Shura council.

Support for Israel came from French President Emmanuel Macron, who landed in Tel Aviv on Tuesday and will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of Israel's war cabinet.

"We are linked to Israel through mourning," Macron said on the social media, saying that 30 French people were killed in the Oct. 7 attacks and nine were still missing or held hostage.

US President Joe Biden welcomed the release of the two hostages, and also underscored the need to sustain "a continuous flow" of humanitarian assistance into Gaza in a telephone call with Netanyahu, the White House said.

In public, the United States has said Israel has the right to defend itself, but two sources said the White House, Pentagon and State Department have stepped up private appeals for caution in conversations with the Israelis.

A US priority is to gain time for negotiations to free other hostages, said the sources, who spoke before the hostage releases were announced on Monday.

Asked about the possibility of a ceasefire, Biden said: "We should have those hostages released and then we can talk."

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken planned on Tuesday to attend a UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East, though it was unclear what action, if any, might be taken by the council, whose five veto-wielding powers - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France - are divided.