The ongoing Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have resulted in the destruction of a significant portion of a neighborhood. According to officials from the Hamas-run health ministry, the total death toll has now exceeded 4,300 individuals.

A distressing aspect of this toll is that over half of those who have lost their lives are women and children, as reported by the ministry.

The situation in Gaza has led to the displacement of around 1.4 million Gazans, with more than half a million of them taking refuge in 147 UN shelters, according to the United Nations.

On a positive note, on Saturday, the first aid trucks were able to enter Gaza. Israel's military clarified that this aid was initially intended for southern Gaza exclusively. It should be noted that the military has urged all residents in the northern Gaza Strip to evacuate and relocate to the south of Wadi Gaza, situated in the center of the territory.

Nevertheless, Israeli airstrikes have persisted in southern Gaza, and some residents have chosen not to abandon their homes, expressing concerns about the safety of any location in the area.

The crisis in Gaza escalated after Hamas's military wing breached the border into Israel, resulting in the loss of over 1,400 lives and the taking of more than 200 hostages in Gaza. In response, Israel cut off the supply of fuel, electricity, and water to Gaza.

The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has stated that intensive bombardments continue in Gaza, alongside indiscriminate rocket firings by Palestinian armed groups towards Israeli population centers.

UN officials have described the situation in Gaza as catastrophic, while an Israeli military spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, has claimed that humanitarian conditions in Gaza are "under control."

The latest Israeli airstrikes destroyed the al-Zahraa neighborhood in central Gaza, with more than two dozen blocks of flats razed to the ground overnight into Friday.

Images and footage posted on social media showed plumes of smoke rising above the neighborhood and lines of flattened buildings along rubble-lined streets.

Residents told the BBC that they had not expected the bombing as the area had been relatively calm. They said they were told to evacuate on Thursday evening at around 20:30 to 21:00 local time (17:30-18:00 GMT).

"We ran through the streets. then Israel started bombing this area non-stop, from 9 pm to 7 am this morning," one woman told the BBC on Friday.

The bombing there has left thousands of people with nowhere to go. On Friday another resident told the BBC people were trapped under the rubble of their homes.

"Ambulances cannot get here. People are screaming but we cannot pull them out," he said.

In northern Gaza, the Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli forces had ordered the evacuation of the Al-Quds hospital.

The hospital is currently home to more than 400 patients and 12,000 displaced civilians, according to the Red Crescent.

The humanitarian organization called on the "international community to act urgently".

A doctors' group, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, said it filed a petition to Israel's Supreme Court warning that Al-Quds Hospital could not be evacuated.

"In its response, the state announced that it would not attack the hospital for the time being," the group said, as it warned against harming civilians during combat, violating international law, and damaging medical services.

Meanwhile, the NGO Save the Children has warned that the lives of a million children in Gaza "hang in the balance".

The aid agency has called for the urgent medical evacuation of ill and injured children from the enclave and warns of increased deaths as a direct result of severe medical supply shortages and power blackouts.

Israel says it is investigating after the compound of a Gazan church was damaged by an air strike against Hamas on Thursday.

A building near to the Saint Porphyrius Church in Gaza City partially collapsed in the attack.

Hamas officials said 16 people died, while Israel said it was aware of reports of casualties.

US congressman Justin Amash said several of his relatives who had been sheltering in the church compound were killed as a result of the Israeli air strike.

"The Palestinian Christian community has endured so much. Our family is hurting badly," he wrote on X.

The Israel Defense Forces said its fighter jets had hit a nearby Hamas command and control center that was being used to carry out rocket attacks.

"As a result of the IDF strike, a wall of a church in the area was damaged. We are aware of reports on casualties. The incident is under review," it said.

"The IDF can unequivocally state that the church was not the target of the strike."

Based on images released on Friday, it appeared that while the main building of the church suffered some damage, it was the adjacent building within the compound that suffered a collapse.

Photos seen by BBC Verify show a large amount of debris spilling onto the road.

The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem expressed its "strongest condemnation of the Israeli air strike that has struck its church compound".

Saint Porphyrius is the oldest church still in use in Gaza, with the current structure dating back to the 12th Century. There are around 1,000 Christians in Gaza, most of whom are Greek Orthodox.

Hamas said that up to 500 people were sheltering at the site, although this number cannot be verified.

It serves them right