UNRWA communications director Juliette Touma said 193 UNWRA workers had been killed in the conflict so far.

“Since the beginning of the war, we have recorded that nearly 190 of our buildings have been hit. This is the vast majority of our buildings in Gaza,” she said.

‘Intense’ fighting ending

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the phase of intense fighting against Hamas in the Gaza Strip would end “very soon” but that the war would not end until the Islamist group no longer controls the Palestinian enclave.

“After the intense phase is finished, we will have the possibility to move part of the forces north. And we will do this,” Netanyahu told Israel’s Channel 14.

Israel’s fighting against Iran-backed Hezbollah has escalated on the northern border with Lebanon, where many Israeli towns have been evacuated. Netanyahu said a northern deployment would allow residents to come home.

More than eight months into Israel’s war in the Hamas-administered Palestinian enclave, its advance is focused on the two areas its forces have yet to seize – Rafah on Gaza’s southern tip and the area surrounding Deir al-Balah in the centre.

Israel’s ground and air campaign in Gaza was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel has since killed almost 37,600 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, and left Gaza in ruins.

Residents said Israeli tanks had advanced to the edge of the Mawasi displaced persons’ camp in north-west Rafah in fierce fighting with Hamas-led fighters, part of a push in which they had blown up dozens of houses in recent days.

“The fighting with the resistance has been intense. The occupation forces are overlooking the Mawasi area now, which forced families there to head for Khan Younis,” said one resident, who asked not to be named, on a chat app.

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The Israeli military said it was continuing “intelligence-based, targeted operations” in the Rafah area and had located weapons stores and tunnel shafts, and killed Palestinian gunmen.

The armed wings of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad movement said their fighters had attacked Israeli forces in Rafah with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs and pre-planted explosive devices.