Live updates | Palestinian refugee camps shelled in central Gaza as Israel seeks to expand offensive

Israel is apparently preparing to expand its ground offensive in Gaza into a third section of the territory.

Palestinian refugee camps were bombarded in central Gaza on Tuesday, residents said.

More than 20,600 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children, have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants among the dead.

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

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Currently:

— Lose a limb or risk death? Growing numbers among Gaza’s thousands of war-wounded face hard decisions

— An Israeli airstrike in Syria kills a high-ranking Iranian general

— Americans beg for help getting family out of Gaza. ‘I just want to see my mother again,’ a son says

— Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Here’s what’s happening in the war:

ISRAEL IS FACING A ‘MULTI-ARENA WAR’ FROM 7 DIFFERENT FRONTS, MINISTER SAYS

JERUSALEM — Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that Israel is facing a “multi-arena war” from seven different fronts.

Gallant spoke during a Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting at the Knesset on Tuesday.

“We have responded and acted already on six of these fronts,” Gallant said. Gallant told the committee the seven fronts are Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank, Iraq, Yemen, and Iran, but wouldn’t elaborate further on which fronts Israel has acted.

Gallant added that without achieving the goals of the war, the country won’t just have an issue with people reluctant to return to the border areas with Lebanon and Gaza, but “people will not want to live in a place where we do not know how to protect them.”

During the same meeting, committee chair Yuli Edelstein noted that as the fighting progresses, Israel is “transitioning from the second to third stage” of the military operation in Gaza, but the public should prepare for a long war.