HAMAS guerillas and Israeli troops fought fierce battles across Gaza yesterday as the intense fighting prevented the distribution of vital aid and sparked a “hunger war” among Palestinians.

Khan Younis, the Gaza Strip’s second-largest city, has been the scene of bitter clashes as the trail of death and destruction moves down the coastal enclave.

The fighting is quickly shrinking the area where the besieged Palestinians can seek safety and is pushing large numbers of people, many of whom have been forced to flee multiple times, toward the sealed border with Egypt.

On the Gaza side of the border, makeshift shelters and family homes are already overflowing and many people are sleeping in the streets. 

On the other side are thousands of Egyptian troops preventing the Palestinians from entering Egypt.

Many Palestinians also fear that they will not be allowed to return if they are ultimately forced over the border.

The United Nations says some 1.87 million people, more than 80 per cent of the population, have already been forced to flee their homes.

Much of the north, including large parts of Gaza City, has been completely destroyed and Palestinians worry that the rest of Gaza could suffer a similar fate.

Israel has vowed to eliminate Hamas following the Islamist group’s surprise October 7 attack in the country’s south that triggered the war. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, Israeli military action has killed more than 16,200 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and wounded more than 42,000.

Hamas and other armed groups killed about 1,200 people and took 240 men, women and children hostage in that attack.

An estimated 138 of the captives remain in Gaza after more than 100 were freed during a ceasefire last week. 

Around 240 Palestinians, most of whom had not been charged with any crime, were released from Israeli detention as part of an exchange deal brokered by Qatar.

The UN says only limited aid distribution has been possible because of the fighting and road closures imposed by Israeli forces.

Hamza Abu Mustafa, a teacher who lives near a school-turned-shelter in Rafah and is hosting three families himself, said “the situation is extremely dire.

“You find displaced people in the streets, in schools, in mosques, in hospitals, everywhere.”

Nawraz Abu Libdeh, who is sheltering in Khan Younis after being displaced six times, described the situation in UN-run shelters there as “beyond catastrophic,” with people fighting over food. 

“The hunger war has started,” he said. “This is the worst of all wars.”