GAZA/JERUSALEM, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Israel battered Gaza from the air on Monday, killing more people, while its soldiers fought Hamas militants on the ground in raids inside the besieged Palestinian enclave before a potential new stage to the conflict.

Gaza's health ministry said 436 people died in Israeli aerial attacks in the past 24 hours, most of them in the south of the narrow, densely populated Gaza Strip.

With the territory's 2.3 million people trapped and running short of basics, European leaders looked set to call for a pause in hostilities so aid could reach them.

But the conflict was spreading, with Israeli aircraft also striking southern Lebanon overnight and Israeli troops and Palestinians clashing in the occupied West Bank.

Hamas also fired more rockets into Israel.

The U.N. said desperate civilians lacked food, water, medicines and places to shelter from the unrelenting pounding that has flattened swathes of the Hamas-ruled enclave.

Some aid was trickling over one border crossing into Gaza, but only a fraction of the amount needed.
At least 5,087 Palestinians have been killed in two weeks of strikes, including 2,055 children, the health ministry said.

The Israeli bombardment was triggered by an Oct. 7 cross-border assault on Israeli communities by Hamas militants who killed 1,400 people and took more than 200 hostage - the bloodiest episode in a single day since the state of Israel was founded 75 years ago.

Photo from Reuters