JERUSALEM — Nearly 100 people, including children, have been killed in a large-scale Israeli ground, air and sea attack launched early Friday in north Gaza, the Hamas-run civil defense and residents have said.

The civil defense said at least nine homes and tents housing civilians had been bombed overnight and it had received dozens of calls from people trapped.

Witnesses also reported smoke bombs, artillery shelling and tanks in Beit Lahia.

Israel's military said it was "operating to locate and dismantle terrorist infrastructure sites" in north Gaza and had "eliminated several terrorists" over the past day.

This marks the largest ground assault on north Gaza since Israel resumed its offensive in March.

Basheer al-Ghandour, who fled Beit Lahia for Jabalia after the attack, told the BBC people were sleeping when suddenly "intense bombing" hit overnight.

"It came from all sides - air strikes and warships. My brother's house collapsed. There were 25 people inside," he said.

He said 11 people were injured and five killed, including his nieces, aged five and 18, and a 15-year-old nephew. He and others tried to free relatives from the rubble.

"My brother's wife is still under the rubble - we didn't manage to rescue her. Because of how intense the bombing was, we had to flee," he said.

"We didn't take anything with us - no furniture, no food, no flour. We even left in bare feet."

Another survivor, Yousif Salem, told reporters he and his three children had "just escaped death".

"An air strike hit our neighbours' home - none of them survived," he said.

He said artillery shells began hitting near their house as they were trapped inside. When he tried to leave, a quadcopter drone opened fire, he said.

He made a second attempt under heavy shelling, he said. All roads were blocked, but they managed to find a side road.

"We escaped only minutes before Israeli tanks encircled the area," he said.

According to local residents, the attack began with smoke bomb barrages followed by intense artillery shelling from nearby Israeli positions.

Tanks then began advancing toward Al-Salateen neighborhood in western Beit Lahia.

Witnesses reported that Israeli armored vehicles surrounded a school sheltering hundreds of displaced civilians.

Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets early Friday over several areas in north Gaza calling on residents to evacuate the areas immediately, raising fears the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was expanding its military operation in one of Gaza's most densely populated regions.

The evacuation orders sparked panic among families who have been displaced multiple times since the war began. Many have nowhere else to go.

"I swear I don't know where we're going," said Sana Marouf, who was fleeing with her family on a donkey cart in Gaza City.

"We don't have mattresses, blankets, food or water."

She said she had seen people "torn to pieces" overnight. "It was a black night. They were relentlessly bombing us."

The attack in north Gaza comes after Israeli air strikes killed more than 120 people, mostly in the south, on Thursday.

The IDF said on Friday it had struck more than 150 "terror targets" throughout Gaza over the past day, including anti-tank missile posts, military structures, and centers where groups were planning to "carry out terrorist attacks against IDF troops".

In south Gaza, the IDF said it had dismantled Hamas structures and shafts and killed "several terrorists" who Israel said had planned to plant an explosive device.

While Friday's powerful overnight strikes and reported advance by ground troops west of Beit Lahia are significant, this does not yet look like Israel's threatened major military offensive.

Israel's government has pledged to intensify operations in Gaza and indefinitely reoccupy the Strip if Hamas did not accept a proposal for a temporary ceasefire and the return of remaining hostages by the end of President Donald Trump's regional trip, which concluded on Friday.

While there has been no sign of a breakthrough with negotiating teams still in Doha, local media say that Arab mediators have been pushing for more time to give talks a chance.

A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas agreed in January broke down when Israel relaunched air strikes on Gaza in March.

Israel also implemented a total blockade on humanitarian aid, including food, that has been widely condemned by the UN as well as European and Arab countries.

Israel's defence minister Israel Katz last month said the blockade was a "main pressure lever" to secure victory over Hamas and get all the hostages out.

There is growing evidence that Israel's 10-week blockade is having an increasingly detrimental humanitarian impact. Aid organisations and residents say people in Gaza are now starving.

A recent UN-backed report said Gaza's whole population – some 2.1 million people – is at critical risk of famine.

The Israeli government has insisted there is no shortage of food in Gaza and that the "real crisis is Hamas looting and selling aid".

Israel and the US have proposed allowing in and distributing aid through private companies - a plan rejected by the UN.

The deteriorating situation in Gaza has drawn concern from the US this week.

Boarding his flight home from the Middle East, Trump said the US needs to "help out the Palestinians" and acknowledges "a lot of people are starving".

On Thursday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration was "troubled" by the humanitarian situation.

Israel launched a military campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group's cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 53,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Fifty-eight hostages are still being held in Gaza, up to 23 of whom are believed to be alive. — BBC