Israel says months of fighting lie ahead in Gaza

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Israel says it is in the final stages of clearing out Hamas terrorists from northern Gaza, but that months of fighting lie ahead in the south.

Bombardment and fighting continued Thursday, and internet and communications that had been knocked out for several days gradually began to return across the territory.

Israel has vowed to continue the offensive until it destroys Hamas’ military capabilities and returns scores of hostages captured by Palestinian terrorists during their Oct. 7 rampage. Hamas and other terrorists killed some 1,200 people that day, mostly civilians, and captured around 240 others.

Hamas fired a barrage of rockets at central Israel Thursday. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The United States has continued to support Israel’s campaign while also urging greater efforts to protect civilians. The U.S. wants Israel to shift to more targeted operations aimed at Hamas leaders and the group’s tunnel network.

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Israel’s military says 137 of its soldiers have been killed in the Gaza ground offensive. Israel says it has killed some 7,000 terrorists. It blames the high number civilian deaths in Gaza on Hamas, saying it uses them as human shields when it fights in residential areas.

U.N. Security Council members are negotiating an Arab-sponsored resolution for a halt in fighting to allow for increased aid deliveries. A vote on the resolution has been postponed twice this week in the hopes of getting the U.S. to support it or allow it to pass after it vetoed an earlier cease-fire call.

A report released Thursday by 23 U.N and nongovernmental agencies found that the entire population in Gaza is in a food crisis, with 576,600 at catastrophic — or starvation — levels.

This week, Israel began allowing aid to enter Gaza through its Kerem Shalom crossing, which boosted the number of trucks entering from around 100 a day to around 190 on Wednesday, according to the U.N. But an Israeli strike Thursday morning hit the Palestinian side of the crossing, forcing the U.N. to stop its pickups of aid there, according to Juliette Touma, spokesperson of UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees.

At least four staff members at the crossing were killed, a nearby hospital reported. The Israeli military said it struck terrorists in the area.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Israel has been working to increase its inspection of aid trucks to 300 or 400 a day and blamed the U.N. for failures in delivery. The amount of aid could triple “if the U.N., instead of complaining all day, would do its job,” he said.

Egypt’s Rafah crossing has limited capacity for trucks to cross. U.N. officials say delivery of aid within much of Gaza has become difficult or impossible because of fighting, and more than 130 U.N. personnel have been killed.

The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Tuesday the death toll since the start of the war had risen to more than 19,600. It does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths.

On Wednesday, the WHO delivered supplies to Ahli and Shifa hospitals in northern Gaza, where Israeli troops have demolished vast swaths of the city while fighting Hamas terrorists.

Israeli forces have raided a series of health facilities in the north in recent weeks, detaining men for interrogation and expelling others.

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Jeffery reported from Cairo, Barry from Milan, Italy. Associated Press writers Lee Keath in Cairo and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed.