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At least six more Palestinians have been killed, as Israeli forces advance further into Gaza.
At the centre of the fighting has been the Shejaia neighbourhood in northern Gaza, into which Israeli tanks moved back four days ago.
Residents say they've been trapped in their homes, unable to leave, because Israeli forces have fired shells at the homes.
Several have been destroyed.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains unrepentant, saying the government's goals are still absolute, and unchanged.
"Our forces are operating in Rafah, in Shejaia, everywhere in the Gaza Strip. Every day they are eliminating dozens of terrorists. This is a difficult struggle that is being waged above ground, sometimes in face-to-face battles, and it is also being waged underground. We are committed to fighting until we achieve all our goals: The elimination of Hamas, the return of all our hostages, ensuring that Gaza does no longer poses a threat on Israel and the safe return of residents in the south and the north to their homes. To anyone who doubts the achievement of those goals, I again say: there is no substitute for victory."
In southern Gaza, Israeli forces have moved further into western and central Rafah, where the six deaths occured.
Mr Netanyahu says force against Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza will be the only remaining option there until Israeli hostages there are freed.
"As for the sacred task of freeing our hostages: There is no change in Israel's position regarding the release outline that President Biden welcomed. And today everyone knows the simple truth: Hamas is the only obstacle to freeing our hostages. With a combination of political and military pressure, and first and foremost military pressure, we will return them all - all 120 of our hostages, the living and the dead alike."
Once a designated safe area for civilians, Palestinians are now fleeing Rafah for Khan Younis.
They carry their belongings on donkey carts, and sleep in tents.
Mervette Shamlakh has been displaced from Gaza City.
She says there remains simply no place safe for civilians to go in Gaza.
"We came here to the Mawasi in Khan Younis. They told us it was safe, but there is no safety. We are leaving, collecting our things to leave. We have no idea where we are supposed to go. There are no more safe places.”
The death toll in Gaza since October the 7th now stands at nearly 38,000.
Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis, and took about 250 more hostage, in its attacks of October the 7th.
But the effects of the conflict in Gaza, as ever, reverberate far beyond the small enclave's borders.
There remains disquiet in Israel over the ruling by the country's Supreme Court that ultra-Orthodox Jews are not legally exempt from conscription laws.
Previously, ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students have been largely exempt from serving the standard 24 to 32 months in the military that all Israelis over the age of 18 have to.
The change has caused fractures in Mr Netanyahu's government, and protests on the streets.
Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox protesters have clashed with police in Jerusalem.
There were scuffles, and the police ended up using water cannons.
One of the protesters, Naom Meghnagi, says Israel needs people in the seminary just as much as it needs people in the armed forces.
“I’m here to support the cause over here against drafting to the army. I believe that as much as we need an army in Israel, we also need an army of people sitting learning Torah, they’re doing a lot and we can't have them drafted, we need to… we need the Torah in the country and as far as I believe it’s a bad decision to try and stop that.”
Locally, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's senior colleagues have been forced to come to his defence, after his weekend decision to indefinitely suspend West Australian Senator Fatima Payman from the Labor Party caucus.
She voted against the party line on the issue of Palestinian statehood- and the young Muslim senator says she will do so again.
She voted last week to recognise Palestinian statehood immediately, whilst party policy is to recognise a Palestinian state, but with conditions attached, and no time frame attached.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says Ms Payman is going about things the wrong way.
"Look, I respect every one of my colleagues in our Labor team, and I haven't had the opportunity to engage much in the internal issues around that, but I have a good and respectful relationship with all of our colleagues, and I share Penny Wong's view that we get more done and we make more progress when we act collectively rather than individually. And I think that's the case here, and I support our party's policy on a two-state solution."
But Greens senator Max Chandler-Mather says senior people in the Labor party are completely missing the point.
"It is utterly extraordinary and disgraceful that the Labor Party have suspended a young Muslim woman and first term senator, just for speaking up for Palestine. Right now. We have a Labor government that has taken more sanctions out against Fatima Payman than they have against Israel for carrying out a genocide in Gaza."
