An Israeli soldier guards the port of Ashdod. (Photo: AFP/ VNA)

Residents said Israeli armour had thrust as far as the market at the heart of Jabalia, the largest of Gaza's eight historic refugee camps, and that bulldozers were demolishing homes and shops in the path of the advance.

Israel had said its forces cleared Jabalia months earlier in the Gaza conflict, triggered by the deadly Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on Oct. 7, but said last week it was returning to prevent Islamist militants re-grouping there.

As the fighting raged, the US military said trucks started moving aid ashore from a temporary pier, the first to reach the besieged enclave by sea in weeks.

"This is an ongoing, multinational effort to deliver additional aid to Palestinian civilians ... and will involve aid commodities donated by a number of countries and humanitarian organizations," the Pentagon's Central Command said in a statement.