Israeli Tanks Re-enter Northern Gaza: Intense Fighting Resumes Amidst Humanitarian Crisis

Israeli tanks re-entered parts of the northern Gaza Strip that they had previously withdrawn from.

This led to some of the most intense fighting since the New Year when Israel announced it was scaling back its operations in the area.

Massive explosions could be seen over northern areas of Gaza from across the border with Israel.

This was a rarity over the past two weeks after Israel announced a draw-down of forces in the north as part of a transition to smaller, targeted operations.

Israel's Iron Dome defenses shot down rockets fired by militants across the fence, proving that they retain the capability to launch them despite more than 100 days of war.

Israel said its forces had killed dozens of Hamas fighters overnight in clashes in Beit Lahiya on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip.

Gaza health authorities reported that the last 24 hours of Israeli bombing had killed 158 people in the enclave, raising their toll for the war, now in its fourth month, to 24,285, with thousands more bodies feared lost in the rubble.

The war has driven nearly all Gazans from their homes, some several times, and caused a humanitarian crisis, with food, fuel, and medical supplies running low.

Under pressure from Washington to reduce civilian casualties, Israel had said it was shifting tactics, transitioning from a full-scale ground assault to targeted operations against the Hamas militants that control the enclave.

It began that shift with a pullback in the north, where its forces had begun their ground offensive in October.

On Monday evening, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant also said the more recent ground assault in the south was drawing to a close.

But any path toward de-escalating the war still seems remote, with Israel saying it will not halt until Hamas is destroyed, and the fighters showing no sign of losing the ability to resist.

Israeli officials reported that Hamas rockets hit an electronics shop in southern Israel on Tuesday morning.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Some of the hundreds of thousands of residents who fled the north earlier in the war had begun returning last week to bombed-out areas where the Israelis had withdrawn.

But residents who spoke to Reuters on Tuesday said the abrupt resurgence of fighting in the north would now halt plans to try to go home.