Israel forces stormed southern Gaza’s main city on Tuesday in what they called the most intense day of combat in five weeks of ground operations against Hamas militants, and hospitals struggled to cope with scores of Palestinian dead and wounded. In what appeared to be the biggest ground assault in Gaza since a truce with Hamas unravelled last week, Israel said its troops – who were backed by warplanes – had reached the heart of Khan Younis and were also surrounding the city.
“We are in the most intense day since the beginning of the ground operation,” the commander of the military’s Southern Command, General Yaron Finkelman, said. He said Israeli forces were also fighting in Jabalia, a large urban refugee camp and Hamas hotbed in northern Gaza next to Gaza City, and in Shuja’iyya, east of the city.
Hamas’ armed wing, the al Qassam Brigades, said its fighters had destroyed or damaged 24 Israeli military vehicles and snipers had killed or wounded eight Israeli soldiers in ongoing clashes in various areas of Khan Younis. Separately, Gaza health officials said large numbers of people were killed in an Israeli strike on houses in Deir al-Balah, north of Khan Younis.
The head of the Shuhada Al-Aqsa Hospital there, told Reuters at least 45 were killed. “There will be no negotiations or exchange of detainees until Israel’s aggression against the Gaza strip stops, Hamas official Osama Hamdan said in a press conference on Tuesday. “We hold (Israeli PM) Netanyahu fully responsible for the lives of the Israeli hostages and for obstructing the completion of the exchange deal.”
Israel military chief of staff Herzi Halevi said his forces had begun the “third phase of the ground operations”, moving in the south after seizing much of the north and “severely damaging Hamas.” “Sixty days after the war began, our forces are now encircling the Khan Younis area…,” he said, referring to the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion. After days of ordering residents to flee the area, Israeli forces dropped new leaflets on Tuesday with instructions to stay inside shelters during the assault. The leaflets addressed to residents of six districts, amounting to around a quarter of Khan Younis.
Israeli bombardments have driven 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents from their homes, most fleeing south. Crowded southern areas are now sheltering triple their usual population. At Khan Younis’ main Nasser hospital, the wounded arrived by ambulance, car, flatbed truck and donkey cart after what survivors described as a strike on a school being used as a shelter for the displaced.
Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashra al-Qidra said at least 43 corpses had already reached Nasser hospital that morning. “Hospitals in the southern Gaza Strip are totally collapsing,” he said. Unicef said the few small areas designated “safe” by Israel were inadequate for the hundreds of thousands of people in desperate need of shelter. “These are tiny patches of barren land or they’re street corners. They’re sidewalks. They’re half-built buildings. There is no water,” spokesman James Elder said.
“We are in the most intense day since the beginning of the ground operation,” the commander of the military’s Southern Command, General Yaron Finkelman, said. He said Israeli forces were also fighting in Jabalia, a large urban refugee camp and Hamas hotbed in northern Gaza next to Gaza City, and in Shuja’iyya, east of the city.
Hamas’ armed wing, the al Qassam Brigades, said its fighters had destroyed or damaged 24 Israeli military vehicles and snipers had killed or wounded eight Israeli soldiers in ongoing clashes in various areas of Khan Younis. Separately, Gaza health officials said large numbers of people were killed in an Israeli strike on houses in Deir al-Balah, north of Khan Younis.
The head of the Shuhada Al-Aqsa Hospital there, told Reuters at least 45 were killed. “There will be no negotiations or exchange of detainees until Israel’s aggression against the Gaza strip stops, Hamas official Osama Hamdan said in a press conference on Tuesday. “We hold (Israeli PM) Netanyahu fully responsible for the lives of the Israeli hostages and for obstructing the completion of the exchange deal.”
Israel military chief of staff Herzi Halevi said his forces had begun the “third phase of the ground operations”, moving in the south after seizing much of the north and “severely damaging Hamas.” “Sixty days after the war began, our forces are now encircling the Khan Younis area…,” he said, referring to the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion. After days of ordering residents to flee the area, Israeli forces dropped new leaflets on Tuesday with instructions to stay inside shelters during the assault. The leaflets addressed to residents of six districts, amounting to around a quarter of Khan Younis.
Israeli bombardments have driven 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents from their homes, most fleeing south. Crowded southern areas are now sheltering triple their usual population. At Khan Younis’ main Nasser hospital, the wounded arrived by ambulance, car, flatbed truck and donkey cart after what survivors described as a strike on a school being used as a shelter for the displaced.
Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashra al-Qidra said at least 43 corpses had already reached Nasser hospital that morning. “Hospitals in the southern Gaza Strip are totally collapsing,” he said. Unicef said the few small areas designated “safe” by Israel were inadequate for the hundreds of thousands of people in desperate need of shelter. “These are tiny patches of barren land or they’re street corners. They’re sidewalks. They’re half-built buildings. There is no water,” spokesman James Elder said.
