Israel expands ground, air raids on Gaza

• Aussie FM warns of 'risk there will be no Palestine left to recognise'
• Palestinians too weak to travel on foot to aid sites: aid agency 
• Israel allowing just 86 trucks of aid into Gaza a day

An Israeli military ground campaign accompanied by "very heavy fire from its air force and also from Israeli artillery units" was under way in various parts of Gaza yesterday, according to the Gaza authorities.

Israel is still deepening its operations in Gaza City. This comes amid reports that Israel's cabinet could authorise a complete military takeover of the Palestinian enclave for the first time in two decades, despite international pressure for a ceasefire to ease appalling conditions in the besieged territory.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to meet security chiefs in Jerusalem to issue new orders yesterday, even as Israel's diplomats convened a UN Security Council meeting in New York to highlight the plight of Israelis held in Gaza.

The timing of the security meeting has not been officially confirmed. Netanyahu said Monday that it would be "in the coming days".

Inside Gaza yesterday, Israeli gunfire and strikes killed at least 52 Palestinians, local health authorities said, including five people in a tent in Khan Younis and eight aid seekers near Rafah in the south.

Israeli tanks pushed into central Gaza, but it was not clear if the move was part of a larger ground offensive, reports Reuters.

Meanwhile, Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong has told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) "there is a risk there will be no Palestine left to recognise".

However, Wong did not elaborate on when Australia would recognise Palestinian statehood, saying only that it was "a matter of when, not if".

The UN's children's fund has decried the scale of children being killed in Gaza, which it said averages out to 28 a day — "the size of a classroom", Al Jazeera reports.

"Gaza's children need food, water, medicine and protection. More than anything, they need a ceasefire, now," said the UN agency.

The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) has said that 70 percent of Palestinians are suffering from "extreme weakness caused by starvation" making it difficult to access aid.

"The physical exhaustion is so profound that many are unable to make the long journey on foot to distribution sites or carry heavy loads even if they receive assistance," the DRC said in a survey of Palestinians in Deir el-Balah, Khan Younis, Gaza City and North Gaza.