GAZA/WASHINGTON - Israel’s military intensified its assault on Hamas militants in Gaza, as the United States and other global powers called for aid to continue flowing into the besieged strip to prevent an already grave humanitarian crisis from worsening.

Israel’s military said it had hit more than 400 militant targets in Gaza overnight and killed dozens of Hamas fighters, including three deputy battalion commanders.

In a statement, the military said that among the targets hit was a tunnel which allowed Hamas to infiltrate Israel from the sea and Hamas command centres in mosques. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

Earlier, Israeli Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi suggested Israel has no intention of curbing its strikes on the densely populated Gaza Strip.

He also hinted the country is well-prepared for a ground assault.

“We want to bring Hamas to a state of full dismantling,” Mr Haveli said. “The path is a path of unrelenting attacks, damaging Hamas everywhere and in every way.

“We are well-prepared for the ground operations in the south,” he added, referring to southern Israel which abuts Gaza. “There are tactical, operative, strategic considerations that have provided additional time, and troops who have more time are better prepared, and that is what we are doing now.”

The Palestinian health ministry said the Gaza death toll in two weeks of air strikes has surpassed 5,000.

The Israeli bombardment was triggered by a Hamas assault on Oct 7 that killed more than 1,400 people. Gunmen from the militant group also took some 200 people hostage.

Hamas on Monday freed two Israeli women.

US President Joe Biden welcomed the release of the hostages.

He also underscored the need to sustain “a continuous flow” of humanitarian assistance into Gaza in a telephone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House said.

On its part, China called for a “more authoritative, wide-ranging and effective international peace conference” soon, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki in a telephone call.

A Cairo peace summit on Saturday saw Arab leaders condemn Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, but fail to agree on a joint statement. Absent were Israel and the US.

In public, the United States has stressed Israel’s right to defend itself.

But two sources familiar with the matter said the White House, Pentagon and State Department have stepped up private appeals for caution in conversations with the Israelis.

A US priority is to gain time for negotiations to free other hostages.

Asked about the possibility of a ceasefire, US President Joe Biden said: ““We should have those hostages released and then we can talk.”

At least 10 British nationals have been killed in the conflict between Israel and Hamas and a further six remain missing, junior British finance minister Victoria Atkins told Times Radio on Tuesday.

Obama warns Israel against civilian casualties

In a rare comment by a former US president, Mr Barack Obama has warned that “any Israeli military strategy that ignores the human costs could ultimately backfire”.

He issued a written statement warning Israel not to cause so many civilian casualties in retaliating against Hamas that it would alienate generations of Palestinians.

“Any Israeli military strategy that ignores the human costs could ultimately backfire. Already, thousands of Palestinians have been killed in the bombing of Gaza, many of them children. Hundreds of thousands have been forced from their homes,” Mr Obama said the a statement posted on social media.

It is not immediately clear whether Mr Obama coordinated his statement with Mr Biden, who was his vice-president. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“The Israeli government’s decision to cut off food, water and electricity to a captive civilian population threatens not only to worsen a growing humanitarian crisis,” he added.

“It could further harden Palestinian attitudes for generations, erode global support for Israel, play into the hands of Israel’s enemies, and undermine long term efforts to achieve peace and stability in the region,” he wrote in the statement published in Medium that also condemned Hamas’s attack and reiterated his support for Israel’s right to defend itself.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken planned on Tuesday to attend a UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East.

It is unclear what action, if any, might be taken by the council, whose five veto-wielding powers appear divided.

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has allowed China and Russia to burnish their credentials as the champions of the developing world, in contrast with the US, which has squarely supported Israel.

All three big powers hold Council vetoes.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Tel Aviv on Tuesday to express his country’s “full solidarity” with Israel. He is also expected to call for the “preservation of the civilian population” in Gaza.

With Gaza’s 2.3 million people running short of basics, European leaders looked set to follow the United Nations and Arab nations in calling for a “humanitarian pause” in hostilities so aid could reach them.

A convoy of humanitarian aid trucks delivered water, food and medicine to the Gaza Strip on Monday, the third since aid began flowing on Saturday.

But the United Nations said fuel was not included and reserves will run out within two days.

The UN said desperate Gazans also lacked places to shelter from the unrelenting pounding that has flattened swathes of the Hamas-ruled enclave.

The conflict meanwhile is escalating beyond Gaza.

Israeli aircraft hit positions in south Lebanon held by Hezbollah which, like Hamas, is a group allied to Israel’s long-time foe Iran.

The Israeli army and Palestinians also clashed in the occupied West Bank and Hamas fired more rockets into Israel.

Hostages freed

The two women Hamas released on Monday were the third and fourth hostages to be freed.

“We decided to release them for humanitarian and poor health grounds,” Mr Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the armed wing of the Palestinian Hamas militant group, said on Telegram.

The Israeli prime minister’s office issued a statement confirming that the women, whom it named as Nurit Cooper, 79, and Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, were handed over to the Israeli military and would be taken to a medical facility.

The two were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz, near Gaza, along with their husbands, who are still held by Hamas, it added.

Hamas freed the two elderly women after releasing an American woman and her daughter on Friday.

Fighting inside Gaza

Israel said its armed forces’ incursions overnight were partly intended to gather intelligence, with the whereabouts of the hostages unknown, and had helped improve its military readiness.

“These raids are raids that kill squads of terrorists who are preparing for our next stage in the war. These are raids that go deep,” military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said.

Hamas’s armed wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, said its fighters engaged with an Israeli force that infiltrated southern Gaza, destroying two bulldozers and a tank and forcing the raiders to withdraw.

Israel made no comment on the incident.

The Al-Qassam Brigades also said they were firing missiles at the southern Israeli towns of Ashkelon and Mavki’im. Warning sirens sounded on the Israeli side.

The Israeli military, the Middle East’s most powerful, faces a group that has built up a large arsenal with Iran’s help, fighting in a crowded urban setting and using a vast tunnel network.

The UN humanitarian office (OCHA) said about 1.4 million of Gaza’s population - more than half - are now internally displaced.

Many are seeking refuge in overcrowded UN emergency shelters.

Israel has ordered Gaza residents to evacuate the north. But many who had fled appeared to be returning north due to increased bombardments in the south and lack of shelter.

“They told us to evacuate your place and go to Khan Younis because it is safe... They betrayed us and bombed us,” said 18-year-old Dima Al-Lamdani who lost her parents, seven siblings and four members of her uncle’s family in an air strike after the family moved south.

Spreading violence

Early on Monday, Israeli warplanes also struck two Hezbollah cells in Lebanon that were planning to launch missiles and rockets towards Israel, the Israeli military said. Israel also hit a Hezbollah compound and an observation post.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, two Palestinians were killed at the Jalazone refugee camp near Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority health ministry said.

Residents told Reuters that Israeli forces raided the camp and made many arrests as they clashed with gunmen and some youths who threw stones. The Israeli military said 15 suspects were captured, 10 of them Hamas operatives. REUTERS