GAZA CITY - Israel further intensified its attacks on Gaza, warning its war on Hamas would be "long and difficult", as calls mounted to end the violence and the Red Cross warned of "intolerable" suffering.
The United Nations said thousands more civilians could die in Gaza as Israel announced the war had entered a "second stage", with ground forces still operating inside the Hamas-run territory more than 24 hours after entering it on Friday.
Israel unleashed a massive bombing campaign after Hamas gunmen stormed across the Gaza border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and seizing 230 hostages, according to Israeli officials.
Since then, relentless Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed more than 8,000 people, half of them children, the Hamas-controlled health ministry in the territory said Saturday.
Communications were meanwhile gradually being restored in Gaza on Sunday after a more than 24-hour blackout. Thousands of buildings have been flattened in the overcrowded territory of 2.4 million people, with more than half the population displaced as Israel imposed a near-total siege.
Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, voiced shock Saturday at the "intolerable level of human suffering", urging all sides to de-escalate the conflict.
"This is a catastrophic failing that the world must not tolerate."
But despite increasingly frantic appeals for an end to the violence, Israel says it is intensifying its ground operations, while continuing to pummel Gaza from the sky.
Hamas authorities reported Sunday a "large number" of people killed overnight in strikes on two refugee camps in northern Gaza.
Israel's Home Front Command earlier warned residents in the southern cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon of incoming missile and rocket attacks.
The intense strikes against Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, provided cover for Israeli ground forces to step up operations, ahead of an expected full-blown invasion.
"Since early Friday evening, combined combat forces of armour, combat engineers and infantry have been operating on the ground in the northern Gaza Strip," the Israeli army said late Saturday.