Fleeing Palestinians have packed into areas along Gaza’s border with Egypt and the southern Mediterranean coastline, where shelters and tent camps are overflowing.

The UN humanitarian office says the scale and intensity of ground operations and fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups and their devastating impact is impeding aid deliveries.

The Israeli military’s air and ground offensive against Hamas has widened to most of the territory. Israel says it is striking militant targets, though homes full of people are regularly crushed.

Israeli forces bombarded cities, towns and refugee camps across Gaza overnight and into Thursday, killing dozens of people.

More than 20,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children, have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants among the dead.

About 1,200 people were killed after Hamas raided southern Israel on October 7, with around 240 people taken hostage. Israel says it aims to free the more than 100 hostages who remain in captivity in Gaza.

Here’s what’s happening in the war:

HEAD OF IRAN’S REVOLUTIONARY GUARD VOWS REVENGE FOR GENERAL’S DEATH

TEHRAN, Iran — Thousands of people attended a funeral in Iran for a high-ranking general killed in a suspected Israeli airstrike in Syria.

Mourners gathered in a central square in Tehran on Thursday before accompanying the casket of Gen. Seyed Razi Mousavi to a shrine where he was buried.

Mousavi was a high-ranking general in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard who had served as a longtime military advisor to the Syrian government during that country’s ongoing civil war. He was killed in an airstrike in Damascus on Monday.

The head of the Guard, General Hossein Salami, said “our revenge will be tough, as always,” but that the only fitting revenge would be “the removal of Israel from the face of existence.”

Salami described Mousavi as a close companion of General Qassim Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, who was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq in January 2020.

Earlier Thursday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, prayed before Mousavi’s casket, state TV footage showed.

Iran and Israel have waged a long shadow war, with Israel regularly carrying out strikes on Iran-linked targets in Syria. Tensions have soared since Hamas’ October 7 attack triggered the war in Gaza.

Israel views Iran as its greatest threat because of Tehran’s disputed nuclear program and its support for regional militant groups like Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

ISRAEL ARRESTS 21 PALESTINIANS ACCUSED OF HELPING FINANCE HAMAS

TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli military says forces carried out an operation across multiple areas of the West Bank and arrested 21 Palestinians alleged to have helped finance Hamas.

In a statement Thursday, the military alleged the suspects were financial services providers who allegedly funded Hamas through digital currency and cash. Israeli media said those arrested worked as foreign exchange brokers.

The military said it confiscated tens of millions in Israeli currency as well as safes, documents and cell phones. Video released by the military showed troops raiding establishments overnight, at one point drilling through a wall that appeared to have been stuffed with cash.

One suspect, blindfolded and hands bound by zip ties, was seen getting escorted from a military vehicle.

During the operation, the military says its aircraft struck militants in Jenin who fired on troops. Forces also opened fire on Palestinians whom the military said were throwing firebombs at troops in numerous areas across the West Bank.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said a Palestinian man was killed by Israeli forces in the central city of Ramallah. It did not disclose the circumstances.

More than 300 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, the Palestinian Health Ministry says, mostly in confrontations with Israeli forces during raids and protests.

Israel has also arrested more than 2,500 people in the West Bank during that time.

UNITED NATIONS OFFICE CITES OBSTACLES TO GAZA AID DELIVERIES

UNITED NATIONS — The UN humanitarian office says the scale and intensity of ground operations and fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups in most areas of Gaza and their devastating impact is impeding aid deliveries.

The office, known as OCHA, cited blocked roads, a scarcity of fuel and telecommunications blackouts as some of the obstacles hampering the humanitarian response.

Despite the challenges, OCHA said the UN World Food Program reached about a half-million people internally displaced in UN shelters south of Wadi Gaza with food parcels, wheat flour, high-energy biscuits and nutrition supplements between December 23 and December 26.

The World Food Program, through its partners, is also helping thousands of people outside UN shelters at distribution points and community kitchens, OCHA said.

The UN humanitarian agency said it is also working to deliver 50 tons of wheat flour to more than a dozen bakeries in Gaza.