The United Nations has issued a fresh statement estimating that more than 80% of Gaza's population has been displaced. The UN issued a figure of 1.87 million people who have been driven from their homes.

Further the AP cited that UN as saying "fighting is now preventing distribution of food, water and medicine outside a tiny sliver of southern Gaza" and that the latest military evacuation orders are "squeezing people into ever-smaller areas of the south."

And the ground war and aerial bombardment is expected to continue with great intensity through at least January. "We are in a high-intensity operation in the coming weeks, then probably moving to a low-intensity mode," an Israeli official told CNN.

The Biden administration last week reportedly warned Israel that the clock is ticking on its military operation, and that it's unlikely to have even "months" to fight given domestic and international pressure is ratcheting in response to the soaring death toll (which according to Palestinian sources has surpassed 16,000 killed in Gaza).

According to details of the message delivered to Israeli leaders:

Officials from the Biden administration have marked the start of 2024 as the target date for ending Israel's massive military campaign against terror group Hamas.

Officials have told their Israeli counterparts that this is not a deadline but a target. According to the administration, Israel is close to exhausting the extensive ground invasion it launched in late October in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 massacre and should switch to more focused efforts to bring down Hamas.