The overnight raid on Thursday came after the UN warned that's it's on the verge of running out of fuel in the Gaza Strip, forcing it to sharply curtail relief efforts. Gaza has been under a brutal siege — running out of food, water and medicine — since Hamas' bloody rampage across southern Israel earlier this month ignited the war.
The rising death toll in Gaza is unprecedented in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said on Thursday more than 7000 Palestinians have died in the conflict, a figure that could not be independently verified. Even greater loss of life could come if Israel launches an ground offensive aimed at crushing Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and survived four previous wars with Israel.
At least 15 died in Israeli air strikes in the Gazan city of Khan Younis.
Israeli air strikes in the southern city of Khan Younis leveled more than eight homes belonging to an extended family, killing at least 15 people. Ambulances raced to the scene as dust from the collapsing buildings hung in the air.
The blast zone was a chaotic wasteland of crumbled concrete and twisted metal.
The Israeli military says it only strikes militant targets and accuses Hamas of operating among civilians in densely-populated Gaza. Palestinian militants have fired rocket barrages into Israel since the war began. One struck a residential building in the central city of Petah Tikva, without wounding anyone.
The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region. Hezbollah, an Iranian-funded ally of Hamas operating out of Lebanon, has repeatedly traded fire with Israel along the border. Israel has carried out air strikes in Lebanon, Syria and even the occupied West Bank.
Israel has vowed to crush Hamas' capacity to govern Gaza or threaten Israel again, while also saying it doesn't want to reoccupy the territory from which it withdrew soldiers and settlers in 2005. That could prove a daunting challenge, since Hamas is deeply rooted in Palestinian society.
During the overnight raid, soldiers killed fighters and destroyed militant infrastructure and anti-tank missile launching positions, the military said. It said that no Israelis were wounded. There was no immediate confirmation of any Palestinian casualties.
Israeli soldiers patrol near the border with Gaza, after conducting an overnight 'targeted raid'.
Israeli Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, a military spokesman, said the limited incursion was "part of our preparations for the next stages of the war."
Israel also said it had also carried out around 250 air strikes across Gaza in the last 24 hours, targeting tunnel shafts, rocket launchers and other militant infrastructure.
The Gaza Health Ministry says more than 7000 Palestinians have been killed in the war. Israel says more than 1400 people have died, and another 224 hostages have been taken.
The warning by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, over depleting fuel supplies raised alarm that the humanitarian crisis could quickly worsen.
Gaza's population has also been running out of food, water and medicine. About 1.4 million of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have fled their homes, with nearly half of them crowded into UN shelters. Hundreds of thousands remain in northern Gaza, despite Israel ordering them to evacuate to the south, saying those who remain might be considered "accomplices" of Hamas.
In recent days, Israel has let more than 70 trucks with aid enter from Egypt, which aid workers say is insufficient and only a tiny fraction of what was being brought in before the war. Israel is still barring deliveries of fuel — needed to power generators — saying it believes that Hamas will take it.
Israel has let more than 70 trucks with aid enter from Egypt, which aid workers say is insufficient.
UNRWA has been sharing its own fuel supplies so that trucks can distribute aid, bakeries can feed people in shelters, water can be desalinated, and hospitals can keep incubators, life support machines and other vital equipment working. If it continues doing all of that, fuel will run out by Thursday.
More than half of Gaza's primary health care facilities and roughly a third of its hospitals have stopped functioning, the World Health Organization said.
