Gazans 'exhausted' as Israel-Hamas war rages on

Fighting raged Saturday across Gaza, where displaced Palestinians are "exhausted" with no end in sight to war between the besieged territory's Hamas rulers and Israel, now in its 13th week.

Smoke billowed over the Gaza Strip's southern city of Khan Yunis, the focus of recent fighting in the grinding war, which was triggered on October 7 by Hamas attacks on Israel.

Further south, the border city of Rafah near Egypt was teeming with Gazans seeking safety from Israel's relentless bombardment in its fight against Palestinian militants.

"Enough with this war! We are totally exhausted," said Umm Louay Abu Khater, a 49-year-old woman who had fled her home in Khan Yunis, taking refuge in Rafah.

"We are constantly displaced from one place to another in cold weather," she said. "The bombs keep falling on us day and night."

An AFP correspondent reported continuous artillery shelling overnight in Rafah and Khan Yunis.

The Israeli army kept up its campaign in the face of mounting international pushback, reporting "fierce battles" and air strikes across the narrow Palestinian territory.

In Beit Lahia in north Gaza, "two Hamas military compounds were dismantled by the troops," a military statement on Saturday said, and dozens of "terrorists" were killed in Gaza City.

UN chief Antonio Guterres on Friday reiterated his call for "an immediate humanitarian ceasefire", while the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of the growing threat of the spread of infectious diseases among Gazans.

The fighting began with Hamas's bloody October 7 attacks, which left about 1,140 people dead in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Militants also took about 250 people hostage, and Israel says 129 of them remain in Gaza.

Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry says the Israeli military campaign since then has killed at least 21,507 people, mostly women and children.

Israel's army says 168 soldiers have been killed in combat inside the territory.

As 2023 draws to a close, Ahmed al-Baz, a 33-year-old Palestinian displaced from Gaza City, said this year had been "the worst in my life".

"It was a year of destruction and devastation," he said in Rafah, surrounded by