Israeli forces pressed on with a new ground offensive in Gaza City Wednesday as strikes overnight across the Palestinian territory killed at least 16 people, including women and children, hospital officials said.

Hundreds of thousands remained in the city, the territory’s largest and already in ruins from nearly two years of war and struggling with a famine.

The latest Israeli operation, which started Tuesday, further escalates a conflict that has roiled the Middle East and likely pushes any ceasefire farther out of reach. The Israeli military, which says it wants to “destroy Hamas’ military infrastructure” hasn’t given a timeline for the offensive, but there were indications it could take months.

Many have been attempting to relocate from the city, where 1 million people once lived, to the southern Gaza Strip following Israeli military calls for a full evacuation.

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The pope expressed his “profound” solidarity with Palestinians and demanded Israel respect international humanitarian law as it pushes its new offensive in Gaza.

“Before the Almighty Lord who commanded ‘Thou shalt not kill’ and before all of human history, every person always has an inviolable dignity that must be respected and protected,” Leo said Wednesday.

The first American pope was interrupted by applause when he referred to Gaza at the end of his weekly general audience. He invited all to join his calls for a ceasefire, the release of hostages, a diplomatic solution to the conflict and “full compliance with international humanitarian law.”

The Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Col. Avichay Adraee, said on social media that a new route along Gaza's coastline will open at noon Wednesday for those residents heading south. He says it will remain open for two days.

But many Palestinians in the north have been cut off from the outside world. The Palestinian Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, based in the occupied West Bank, said Israeli strikes on the main network lines in northern Gaza had collapsed internet and telephone services Wednesday morning.

The Associated Press tried unsuccessfully to reach many people in Gaza City.

The World Health Organization says it has supported the medical evacuation of the children, who arrived with about 50 companions. The British government said it was working to make sure the families receive “appropriate support” during their stay.

“Every child deserves the chance to heal, to play, to simply be able to dream again,” Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said.

More children are expected to arrive in the coming weeks. The British government has hardened its stance over Israel’s military activities in Gaza and its anticipated announcement next week at the U.N. General Assembly recognizing the state of Palestine.

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares says his country will work with Norway “to put a fund on the table” to help compensate the Palestinian government in the West Bank for tax revenue being withheld by Israel.

“Israel is trying to annihilate the idea and possibility of a Palestinian state with bombs in Gaza in a veritable massacre,” Albares said on a visit to Egypts.

In February 2024, Norway said it would transfer tax funds to the PA that had been frozen for months because of a dispute with Israel.

Israel collects taxes and customs on behalf of the PA, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank and also helps pay for public services in Gaza.

After Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack triggered the war in Gaza, Israel has periodically refused to make the transfers, with far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich saying the funds were supporting terror.

Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement Wednesday saying they condemned “in the strongest terms” Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza.

The ministry wrote on X that the operation marked an “extension of the war of genocide” against the Palestinians.

Qatar is incensed over an Israeli strike last week that killed five Hamas members and a local security official.

Gaza hospital officials said Wednesday that women and children were among the 16 killed in overnight on the territory.

More than half of the dead were killed in strikes on Gaza City, including a child and his mother at their apartment in the Shati refugee camp, according to officials from the Shifa Hospital, which received the casualties.

In central Gaza, the Al-Awda Hospital said an Israeli strike hit a house in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp, killing three, including a pregnant woman. Two parents and their child were also killed when a strike hit their tent in the Muwasi area west of the city of Khan Younis, said officials from the Nasser Hospital, where the bodies were brought.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the strikes.

A coalition of leading aid groups urged the international community Wednesday to take stronger measures to stop Israel’s offensive on Gaza City after a commission of UN experts found Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.

A statement from the aid groups said countries “must use every available political, economic, and legal tool at their disposal to intervene” and that this moment "demands decisive action.”

The message was signed by leaders of over 20 aid organizations operating in Gaza, including the Norwegian Refugee Council, Anera and Save the Children.

Ahead of Israel's anticipated new ground offensive focusing on Gaza City, aid workers last week managed to save thousands of priceless archaeological artifacts in Gaza from destruction after Israel targeted a warehouse building in a strike.

Israeli military said Hamas used the building for intelligence. It contained items from over 25 years of excavations, including from a 4th-century Byzantine monastery.

International aid groups negotiated with the Israeli military for a delay to move the artifacts. Workers rushed to pack the items in trucks, but some were broken or left behind. The artifacts are now in a safer location but remain in danger, housed outside, as the Israeli offensive widens.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the alternative, one state under which Palestinians would be deprived of their land and rights, would be “absolutely intolerable.”

The Palestinians hope at least 10 countries will recognize a state of Palestine at a session during the upcoming U.N. General Assembly meeting.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes a two-state solution and is boycotting the session, along with close ally the United States.

“Without a two-state solution,” Guterres warned on Tuesday “there will be no peace in the Middle East, and extremism will expand everywhere in the world with the consequences that I consider extremely, extremely negative.”

He says the international community must “make sure the two-state solution prevails.”