As the UN demands more aid for Palestinian civilians, mounting casualties in clashes with Hamas fighters are not slowing Israel’s determination to take full control of the Gaza Strip.

As of Saturday, 146 of Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ground operation began on October 20 after the October 7 rampage by Hamas militants, who killed 1200 people and took 240 hostages.

“We shall press ahead, for every fallen soldier, too. Until Hamas is eliminated. Until the hostages are returned,” Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz, a member of the security cabinet, posted on X.

Thick smoke hung over the northern town of Jabalia on Saturday and residents reported persistent aerial bombardment and shelling from Israeli tanks, which they said had moved further into the town.

Hamas’ armed wing Al Qassam Brigades said it had destroyed five Israeli tanks in the area, killing and injuring their crews, after reusing two undetonated missiles launched earlier by Israel. Reuters could not independently verify the report.

Israel’s chief military spokesperson said on Friday its forces had achieved almost complete operational control of northern Gaza and were preparing to expand the ground offensive to other areas in the Strip, with a focus on the south.

US President Joe Biden discussed the situation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, the White House said.

Biden declined to detail his conversation with Netanyahu, telling reporters it was a “private conversation.”

“I did not ask for a ceasefire,” Biden insisted.

After days of wrangling to avert a threatened US veto, the UN Security Council on Friday passed a resolution urging steps to allow “safe, unhindered, and expanded humanitarian access” to Gaza and “conditions for a sustainable cessation” of fighting.

The resolution was toned down from earlier drafts that called for an immediate end to 11 weeks of war and diluting Israeli control over aid deliveries, clearing the way for the vote in which the US abstained.

Ceasefire demand scrapped

The US and Israel oppose a ceasefire, contending it would allow the Islamist militant group to regroup and rearm.

Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said earlier on Saturday it had fired decoy shots in the area of Issa in Gaza City that lured dozens of militants from a building that served as a Hamas headquarters.

“IDF ground and intelligence troops directed an IAF fighter jet to strike the building, eliminating the terrorists,” it said.

The army released a video it said showed Hamas tunnels in the Issa area.

Later on Saturday, residents and Palestinian media reported that Israeli tanks shelled the town of Juhr ad-Deek in central Gaza. There was no immediate word on casualties.

At least 201 Palestinians have been killed in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 20,258 during the 11-week conflict, the Hamas-controlled Palestinian health ministry said, insisting thousands of additional bodies are trapped under rubble.

Almost all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced.

Hamas said on Saturday it had lost contact with a group it said was responsible for five of the Israeli hostages due to Israeli bombardment. An Israeli military spokesperson described the statement as “psychological terrorism” from Hamas.

Another journalist killed

Health officials and Hamas media said an Israeli air strike on a house in Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed three people including a journalist from Hamas’ Aqsa TV channel and two relatives. The Israeli military says it never deliberately targets journalists.

Hamas’ Aqsa radio later said Israeli planes had bombed and destroyed the headquarters of Aqsa TV and radio station in Gaza City.

An IDF spokesperson declined to comment on Palestinian reports that Israeli forces had begun a ground offensive near Kerem Shalom, east of the Rafah Crossing into Egypt.

Israel has long urged residents to leave northern areas of Gaza but its forces have also been bombarding targets in central and southern parts of the tiny coastal enclave.

-with AAP