Israel will expand ground operations tonight and has warned residents of Gaza City to move south.
A spokesman for the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) told a news conference that it was committed to “returning hostages” and “preserving Israel’s security”.
It comes after Israeli forces said they had carried out more raids into Gaza – including a navy operation.
The IDF said troops had used vessels to attack “Hamas military infrastructure”, with support from aircraft, along the coast in the southern Gaza Strip last night.
Officials released footage of what they said was the raid, but did not go into further details.
The video showed explosions near the sea and soldiers firing their weapons in the dark.
However, Hamas disputed the IDF’s version of events in a statement and said its forces had repelled the raiders, Israeli media reported.
Israeli forces also said they carried out a separate ground raid in the outskirts of Gaza City on Thursday night, as part of a second wave of recent incursions into the territory.
According to Gaza authorities, more than 7,300 Palestinians have now been killed in waves of airstrikes by Israel in retaliation for a cross-border massacre carried out by Hamas in the south of the country on 7 October.
Officials said the dead include more than 3,000 children and more than 1,500 women.
More than 1,400 people in Israel, mostly civilians, were killed during the initial Hamas attack, according to the Israeli government.
It also said Hamas is holding at least 224 captives inside Gaza, including women, children and the elderly.
The overall number of deaths far outstrips the combined total of all four previous conflicts between Israel and Hamas, estimated at around 4,000.
More than one million people in Gaza have fled their homes, with many following Israeli orders to evacuate to the south.
The humanitarian crisis sparked by the war and the Israeli siege has sparked protests across the region, and more demonstrations are expected later on Friday after weekly Muslim prayers.
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