Tel Aviv, 10 November 2023 (dpa/MIA) - Tens of thousands of people fled from the embattled north of the Gaza Strip to the south, Israeli officials said on Friday, as the death toll in the territory rises and the focus turns to longer-term solutions in the region.

Israel again enabled Palestinian civilians to flee safely for several hours, said the Israeli authority responsible for Palestinian affairs, warning that people need to move quickly.

More than 100,000 Palestinians have used the escape route in recent days, as Israeli ground troops press into Gaza, following weeks of airstrikes in retaliation for the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack that killed 1,400 people.

The Israeli army said it had killed and eliminated dozens of suspected members of Hamas in Gaza and the country's defence minister vowed that Israel would track them all down.

The army is prepared to continue waging war on Hamas for a long time to come, for years if necessary, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas' presence in Gaza. But UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called on Israel to immediately stop firing highly explosive weapons on densely populated areas of Gaza.

Israel's relentless bombardment of Gaza has killed 11,078 people, mostly civilians, and injured over 27,490 people, according to the latest figures issued by the Hamas-run Gazan Health Ministry.

Twenty of the 36 hospitals in Gaza are no longer in operation due to heavy bombardment, destruction and the lack of medical supplies, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Even hospitals that are still running are only doing so on an emergency basis, with many lacking enough disinfectants, anaesthetics or electricity to care for patients.

The WHO's comments came after reports of fighting near Dar al-Shifa and other hospitals by Palestinian media and Hamas.

The director of Dar al-Shifa Hospital, Muhammad Abu Salamiya, told reporters in Gaza: "Israel is targeting al-Shifa Hospital for the fourth time today. The outpatient clinic building was targeted and bombed, where we were receiving emergency cases and displaced people." He said large numbers of people were killed and injured.

Twelve young people suffering from cancer and other life-threatening diseases were brought out of Gaza, the WHO said. They and their carers were brought to Egypt and Jordan for continued medical treatment.

Meanwhile 594 foreigners and Palestinian dual nationals were aiming to depart from Gaza for Egypt through the Rafah border crossing, according to Palestinian sources.

Amid the war, little aid is reaching people in Gaza and the United Nations called on Israel to open its Kerem Shalom border crossing to Gaza, saying it is more suited to processing trucks.

The situation in the West Bank has also worsened significantly since the start of the war, with a 17-year-old boy killed in a refugee camp near Bethlehem during confrontations during an Israeli army operation.

Soldiers shot him dead and handed his body over to the Palestinians a few hours later, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service.

Military sources said on Friday 41 suspects had been detained overnight in raids in the West Bank, including 14 Hamas members.

Tensions are soaring in the entire region, with the Lebanese Health Ministry condemning the targeting of governmental hospital Mais al-Jabal in south Lebanon, injuring a health worker.

The hospital was targeted after pro-Iranian Hezbollah fighters attacked the Israeli al-Assi post near the border town of Mais al-Jabal and several other posts.

A Lebanese security source confirmed that Israel attacked the outskirts of Mais al-Jabal in retaliatory shelling.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah announced the deaths of seven fighters, raising the toll to more than 70 killed from the Shiite movement in the current conflict.

Abroad, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre expressed deep pessimism about the war in Gaza, saying in a media interview that there was no end in sight to the conflict.

The war is being waged "with a very strong military logic, but without a clear political idea of how it should end," Støre told Norwegian broadcaster NRK.

He said it was extremely questionable how Israel's actions in Gaza can give the state security in the long term. "The children who survive this hell in Gaza will not be reconciled in the future," he said.

Norway has acted as a mediator in the Middle East conflict in the past, with the Oslo Accords signed in Washington in 1993 after lengthy, secret negotiations. However, an end to the conflict remains a distant prospect.

The only solution is a two-state solution, said Støre.

Meanwhile the head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, said that after the war is over, his authority would be willing to retake control over Gaza as part of a two-state solution, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

"We will bear our full responsibility as part of a comprehensive political solution," Abbas said, referring to the formation of an independent Palestinian state including the West Bank and East Jerusalem as well as Gaza.

Israel's current government rejects this solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, forcing out Abbas' Fatah movement, which retains control over Palestinian areas in the West Bank.

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