Palestinian militants fire rockets into Israel as tanks advance in Gaza

The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad fired a barrage of rockets into Israel on Monday as fighting raged in Gaza and Israeli tanks advanced deeper into parts of the enclave, residents and officials said.

The volley of about 20 rockets caused no casualties, the Israeli military said. However, the attack showed that Palestinian militants still possess rocket capabilities almost nine months into an offensive that Israel says is aimed at eliminating Hamas' armed force in the Gaza Strip.

Residents of several neighborhoods in eastern Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, said they had received audio messages from Israeli phone numbers ordering them to leave their homes.

"For your safety, you must evacuate immediately to the humanitarian zone," Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee posted on the social media platform X in a call to residents and displaced people living in those areas.

The evacuation order signaled that Israeli forces will return to the area, which they left several weeks ago. The Israeli military said in a statement earlier on Monday that the rockets were fired from the Khan Younis area.

Also on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his country is in "the final stage" of eliminating Hamas' armed force in the Gaza Strip.

"We are advancing towards the completion of the elimination" of Hamas, Netanyahu said during a meeting with cadets from Israel's National Security College, according to a statement released by his office.

Israeli tanks deepened incursions into the Shejaia suburb of eastern Gaza City for a fifth day, and tanks advanced further in western and central Rafah in southern Gaza near the border with Egypt, residents said.

The Israeli military reported that it had killed a number of militants in combat in Shejaia on Monday and found large amounts of weapons there.

Hamas stated that its fighters had lured an Israeli force into a booby-trapped house in the east of Rafah and blown it up, causing casualties.

While the fighting continues in the besieged enclave, the United Nations and its partners are providing food aid to newly displaced people from sites in northern and southern Gaza, but no shelter, UN humanitarians said on Monday.

"It continues to be nearly impossible to collect humanitarian aid from the Kerem Shalom crossing to distribute that assistance inside Gaza," said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), adding that this is due to a lack of public order and safety, ongoing hostilities, damaged roads, fuel shortages and access restrictions.

The office also warned that unexploded ordnance continues to pose a significant risk to the lives of people across Gaza.

"Children are particularly at risk: on Saturday, a 9-year-old girl was reportedly killed and three others injured by unexploded ordnance in an area south of Khan Younis," said OCHA.

The UN Mine Action Service estimated that more than 37 million tonnes of debris in the Gaza Strip contain about 800,000 tonnes of asbestos, other contaminants and unexploded ordnance. It said at least 10 percent of ordnance fired potentially fails to function.

(With input from agencies)