JERUSALEM: Israel launched the main stage of its long-awaited ground offensive on Gaza City on Tuesday, declaring"Gaza is burning" as Palestinians in the area described the most intense bombardment they had experienced in two years of war.

An Israel Defence Forces official said ground troops were moving deeper into the city, towards its centre, and that the number of soldiers would rise in coming days to confront up to 3,000 Hamas combatants the IDF believes are still in the city.

"Gaza is burning," Defence Minister Israel Katz posted on X."The IDF strikes with an iron fist at Hamas's infrastructure and IDF soldiers are fighting bravely to create the conditions for the release of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas."

THOUSANDS OF PALESTINIANS FLEE INTENSE BOMBARDMENT

Gaza health officials reported at least 40 people killed, most of them in Gaza City, in the early hours of the assault, as air strikes swept across the city and tank incursions were reported by residents in several areas.

Israel renewed its calls on civilians to leave, and long columns of Palestinians were streaming towards the south and west in donkey carts, rickshaws, heavily laden vehicles or on foot.

"They are destroying residential towers, the pillars of the city, mosques, schools and roads," Abu Tamer, a 70-year-old man who was making the gruelling journey south with his family, told Reuters in a text message.

"They are wiping out our memories."

Hours before the escalation, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered apparent backing for the Israeli government's decision to abandon ceasefire talks and use force to smash Hamas.

While the United States wished to see a diplomatic end to the war,"we have to be prepared for the possibility that's not going to happen", Rubio told a Jerusalem press conference alongside Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

He endorsed Israel's demand that Hamas disarm, disband and free all remaining hostages at once as the only way to end the war.

Hamas says it would free all hostages as part of a permanent ceasefire that would see Israeli forces pull out of Gaza, but has vowed not to disarm until a Palestinian state is established, a goal Israel is determined to thwart.

POWERFUL BLASTS SEND DEBRIS HUNDREDS OF METRES AWAY

The area of Tel Al-Hawa, in the southwest of the city, was being pounded by strikes from air, ground and sea, according to witnesses reached by Reuters via text message.

They said the IDF was using robots loaded with explosives, and that powerful blasts were sending debris and shrapnel hundreds of metres from impact sites.

Despite the intensity of the bombardment, some residents were staying put, either for lack of money to secure a tent and transport, or because they believed there was nowhere safe to go.

"It is like escaping from death towards death, so we are not leaving," said Um Mohammad, a woman living in the suburb of Sabra, which has been under aerial and ground fire for days and where tanks have made incursions.

Both Hamas and the IDF estimate around 350,000 people have fled Gaza City so far, with close to twice as many still left behind.

NEW DEATHS FROM HUNGER, DIRE CONDITIONS IN SOUTH

Much of Gaza City was already laid to waste in the early weeks of the war in 2023, but around 1 million Palestinians had returned there to homes among the ruins. Forcing them out means nearly the entire population of Gaza will now be confined to encampments along the coast further south in what Israel calls a humanitarian area.

The UN, aid groups and numerous foreign countries have denounced Israel's tactics as a mass forced displacement and raised the alarm about dire conditions in the southern zone, with a lack of food, medical care, space and basic hygiene.

Three more Palestinians, including a child, died of malnutrition and starvation in Gaza in the past 24 hours, the territory's health ministry said on Tuesday. That raised deaths from such causes to at least 428, most in the last two months, in what a global monitor calls a man-made famine. Israel says the extent of hunger has been exaggerated.

A United Nations Commission of Inquiry concluded on Tuesday that Israel has

committed genocide

in Gaza and that top officials including Netanyahu had incited those acts, conclusions Israel rejected as"scandalous" and "fake".

WITHIN IDF, SOME CONCERNED ABOUT ASSAULT ON GAZA

Some Israeli military commanders have expressed concern about the assault on Gaza City, warning that it could endanger the remaining hostages held by Hamas, and may be a"death trap" for troops.

Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, at a meeting Netanyahu convened late on Sunday with security chiefs, urged the prime minister to pursue a ceasefire deal, according to three Israeli officials, two of whom were in the meeting and one of whom was briefed on its details.

Hostage families gathered outside Netanyahu's home in Jerusalem late on Monday as news of the intensified strikes in Gaza streamed in.

"Our loved ones in Gaza are being bombarded by the IDF under the orders of the prime minister," said Anat Angrest, whose son Matan is among the 20 hostages believed to still be alive.

Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, Israeli tallies show. Israeli authorities say 20 of the remaining 48 hostages in Gaza are alive.