Israel battles Hamas on streets of Gaza city as UN delays vote again

Israeli troops and Hamas militants fought fierce gunbattles on the streets of Gaza's second-biggest city on Wednesday as the United Nations delayed a vote on a bid to boost aid deliveries into the enclave.

The 15-member UN Security Council was initially going to vote on a resolution - drafted by the UAE - on Monday, but has repeatedly delayed it as talks continue to try and avoid a third US veto of action over the two-month long Israel-Hamas war.

In Gaza, residents of Khan Younis on Wednesday reported intensifying gun battles between Hamas fighters and Israeli forces in the centre and eastern districts of the southern city.

Gazan health officials said 12 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in the city.

Israel has lost 132 soldiers in the fighting inside Gaza since it invaded the territory in response to the October 7 raid by Hamas that Israel says killed 1,200 people and saw 240 people taken hostage.

The Gaza health ministry said on Tuesday that 19,667 Palestinians had been killed and 52,586 wounded in the war. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA said more than 60 per cent of Gaza's infrastructure had been destroyed or damaged and more than 90 per cent of the 2.3 million population uprooted.

A source briefed on diplomatic efforts told Reuters on Tuesday that Qatar's prime minister and the heads of the US and Israeli intelligence services had held "positive" talks in Warsaw to explore ways of reviving negotiations. But a deal was not expected imminently, the source added.

A truce in late November mediated by Qatari and US diplomats lasted for a week before collapsing and yielded the release of 110 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian women and children from Israeli prisons.