By Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO (Reuters) – Israeli tanks pushed north into the Khan Younis neighborhood in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday and Palestinian medics said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 20 people across the city.
Residents said the tanks continued a day after the Israeli army issued a new order to evacuate, saying a rocket had been fired into the area.
With shells falling near residential areas, families left their homes and headed west to the nearby Al-Mawasi settlement.
Medical officials said 11 people were killed in three airstrikes in central Gaza, including six children and a doctor. He added that five of the dead people were standing in line outside the bakery.
Nine more Palestinians were killed by tank fire in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, medics said.
The Israeli military has not commented on the medical reports.
Israeli forces opened fire on the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza for the fifth day in a row, hospital director Hussam Abu Safiya said, adding that three of the medical staff were wounded, one critically, on Tuesday night.
“Drones are dropping bombs full of hooves that hurt anyone who tries to move,” said Abu Safiya. “That is very important.”
Residents of three towns – Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun – said Israeli soldiers bombed many houses.
Palestinians say the Israeli army is trying to evacuate people from northern Gaza and bombard them to create safe havens. The Israeli army denies this and says it will return to prevent Hamas terrorists from regrouping in the area they were previously expelled from.
Israel launched its campaign in the heavily populated area after Hamas-led militants attacked Israeli areas across the border on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages, according to Israeli sources.
The Israeli army has killed more than 44,400 Palestinians, injured many others, and caused widespread destruction.
Israel agreed to a ceasefire with the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah last week that halted fighting in Lebanon in line with the Gaza conflict.
But the war in Gaza alone has ended with only one ceasefire more than a year ago in a week.
(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,’https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
Source link
Leave a Reply