Israel to allow more aid into Gaza

Israel would allow a dramatic increase in aid to Gaza in the coming days, an official said on Sunday, calling on Palestinian civilians to head to what he described as a "humanitarian" zone in the south of the territory.

"In the coming week we were planning to increase dramatically the amount of assistance" headed for Gaza from Egypt, said Colonel Elad Goren of Cogat, the Israeli Defence Ministry agency that coordinates with the Palestinians.

"We have marked a humanitarian zone in the southern Gaza Strip in the Khan Younis area...we still recommend that the civilian population that evacuated will go to this zone," he told media during an online briefing.

Goren did not say whether the humanitarian zone was new or an existing area.

The announcement came as the Israeli army said that it had once again attacked hundreds of Hamas sites, as it intensified its ground operations in Gaza.

A post on the Telegram application on Sunday morning said that fighter jets bombed more than 450 targets on Saturday, including command centres, observation points, and platforms for launching anti-tank missiles.

Meanwhile, The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Sunday it has received warnings from Israeli authorities to immediately evacuate al-Quds hospital in the Gaza Strip.

"Since this morning, there has been raids 50 metres away from the hospital," it added in a statement on Facebook.

An Israeli military spokesman declined to comment when asked about the statement during a media briefing.

In further developments, telephone and internet communications were partially restored in Gaza on Sunday after a more than day-long blackout that had badly impacted rescue operations.

A statement released by the health ministry in Gaza said the total death toll in Gaza had risen to 8,005 people.