A HEAVY Israeli bombardment shook Gaza City today as thousands of fleeing Palestinians searched for shelter and medical facilities were forced to shut down by the latest offensive.

Israel claims that its latest ground assault in the Gaza Strip’s largest city is aimed at rooting out Hamas fighters after they regrouped in areas that the army previously said had been largely cleared.

Much of Gaza City and the urban areas around it have been flattened after nine months of fighting. Most of the population fled earlier in the war, but several hundred thousand Palestinians remain in the north of the devastated coastal enclave.