Israel carpet bombs Khan Younis as military pushes south

Israel is pounding the Gaza Strip with an intense carpet bombing as Palestinian fighters report engaging with Israeli forces closer to Khan Younis, in a sign Israel's military offensive is pushing south. 

On Monday night, the Palestinian Red Crescent released a video that showed intense carpet bombing with repeated massive explosions in southern Gaza.

The organisation said the strikes came just 500 metres from their headquarters and al-Amal hospital.

Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said the organisation had received "harrowing reports" from aid workers in southern Gaza that "the indiscriminate Israeli bombardment of the densely packed civilian population has reached new depths". 

Meanwhile, both Israel and Hamas said Monday they engaged in central and northern Gaza, even as Israel pushed deeper into the besieged enclave’s south

Hamas’s military wing the al-Qassam Brigades, said it struck two Israeli army vehicles and a tank north of Khan Younis, in a sign that the Israeli military is moving south. The group said its fighters used Yasin 105 anti-tank weapons against the Israeli forces. 

Fighters with the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a secular leftist group of Palestinian fighters, said they had also engaged with Israeli forces on Monday in al-Qarara, a town close to Khan Younis.

PalTel, the main telecom company in the Gaza Strip, reported a total communications blackout.