According to Al Jazeera, on Thursday, Israeli attack helicopters and jets launched a furious barrage of airstrikes throughout Gaza, hitting over 50 locations in what Israel called a defensive operation against places it claimed were being used to plot attacks against its armed forces.
The current war between Israel and Palestinian factions in Gaza saw a dramatic escalation with the intensifying airstrikes throughout the day.
According to reports from war monitors, the violence reached a terrible height when Israeli troops hit two UNRWA-operated schools in Gaza City, resulting in several casualties at the Musa bin Nusair School.
These operations were explained by the Israeli military as required to destroy the infrastructure that terrorists used to plan and coordinate their assaults.
The Israeli offensive's extensive nature was reported by two US-based think tanks keeping an eye on the situation: the Critical Threats Project (CTP) and the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
They said that in Gaza City's Shujayea neighbourhood, Israeli troops and Palestinian rebels were fighting at close range.
Conflicts have apparently revolved around this location, with Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas allegedly employing sophisticated "explosively formed penetrators" against Israeli forces.
The fact that Palestinian factions are using such advanced weapons highlights a concerning trend that the ISW and CTP have noticed, which is a strategic change in Hamas's military capabilities since Israeli forces left Gaza earlier this year.
The Israeli security forces have faced not only rocket assaults from Gaza but also ground confrontations in heavily populated metropolitan areas as a result of this return of terrorist activity.
According to the ISW/CTP sources, a flurry of rockets fired from Gaza on Thursday was directed towards southern Israel.
The worst of the brutality is still being inflicted upon civilians on both sides during this very frequent exchange of gunfire.
The vicious cycle of reprisals and counterretaliations has heightened tensions and sparked worries about the humanitarian effects on civilians stranded in the conflict zone on a global scale.