Mapped: Where and how Israel has ramped up its latest attack on the Gaza Strip

Israel continued to pound the Gaza Strip with airstrikes on Wednesday as it resisted international pressure to halt its revamped attacks on the devastated enclave.

Scores of Palestinians were killed, including several women and a one-week-old baby, with at least 500 killed in the past week as Israel launches its new offensive, “Operation Gideon’s Chariots”.

The Israeli military has conducted heavy airstrikes and opened new ground attacks in the past week, as the international community pleaded with the Netanyahu government to allow respite for the Palestinian population and aid workers.

Israel began allowing trucks with humanitarian aid into Gaza on Tuesday following an 11-week blockade, but the UN says aid has not yet reached the Palestinians in desperate need.

Netanyahu has also refused to bend to escalated pressure from the UK and other western allies. The UK announced it would halt trade negotiations with Israel, warning it would go further if the new offensive was not halted.

What is Israel doing in the Gaza Strip?

As the second day of ceasefire talks in Doha ended, Israel launched Operation Gideon’s Chariots, a major ground offensive which followed a series of intense air strikes on Gaza.

The Israeli military says it seeks to exert “tremendous pressure” on Hamas and expand “operational control” in the Gaza Strip.

Benjamin Netanyahu stated in a social media address on Monday: "We are engaged in massive fighting - intense and substantial - and there is progress. We are going to take control of all areas of the Strip, that's what we're going to do.”

But the escalation of Israel’s offensive began before Saturday. On Friday, it launched a massive ground, sea and air attack on northern Gaza, killing at least 100 people according to health authorities in the strip. It was the largest ground assault since Israel resumed its offensive in March, bringing an end to a fragile two-month ceasefire.

Israel announced on Sunday that its forces had opened “extensive ground operations” throughout Gaza with soldiers from five divisions - which amounts to tens of thousands of soldiers.

Israeli forces also attacked from the south, where researchers at Forensic Architecture - part of Goldsmiths, University of London - say Israel is “constructing a second militarised ‘corridor’ in Gaza, to expand their control of the Strip”.

As of Sunday evening, troops had not reached the centre of major cities such as Gaza City and Khan Younis, the New York Times reported. Details about the offensive are relatively scarce from the Israeli military.

Sweeping evacuation orders have been issued for multiple areas over the past week, including Gaza City, Khan Younis, Beit Lahia and Rafah, again displacing thousands of Palestinians from where they sought safety.

On Monday the IDF warned those in Khan Younis to evacuate to the coast as it prepared for an "unprecedented attack", as its forces closed in on the southern city.

Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed by intense Israeli airstrikes since the ramped-up offensive began, including at least 82 on Wednesday.

Israeli troops also have also surrounded two of northern Gaza's last functioning hospitals, preventing anyone from leaving or entering the facilities, hospital staff and aid groups said this week. It came as the World Health Organisation warned on Wednesday that hospitals were at breaking point.

Gaza's health ministry said on Sunday that 3,193 people have been killed since Israel resumed its strikes on 18 March, meaning the overall toll is more than 53,000, according to The New Arab.