An Israeli strike has killed at least nine people in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, Palestinian health officials said Tuesday, within a day of Israel ordering the evacuation of parts of the city ahead of a likely ground operation.
The overnight strike hit a home near the European Hospital, which is inside the zone that Israel said should be evacuated. After the initial evacuation orders, the military said the facility itself was not included, and its director said most patients and medics have already been relocated.
The Israeli military said its forces had struck areas in Khan Younis from where around 20 rockets had been fired on Monday. Targets included weapon storage facilities and operational centres, it added.
It said measures were taken before the strikes to ensure civilians were unharmed by enabling them to evacuate from the area, referring to the evacuation orders. The military accused Hamas of using civilian infrastructure and the wider population as human shields. The Islamist group denies that.
Sam Rose, the director of planning at the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, said Tuesday that the agency believes some 250,000 people are in the evacuation zone of Khan Younis — over 10 per cent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million — including many who have fled earlier fighting.
He says another 50,000 people living just outside the zone may also choose to leave because of their proximity to the fighting. Evacuees have been told to seek refuge in a sprawling tent camp along the coast that is already overcrowded and has few basic services.
The Israeli military says two of its soldiers have been killed and a third soldier was severely wounded fighting in central Gaza. It did not provide details of the battle in a statement issued Tuesday.
The Islamic Jihad militant group said it shelled Israeli supply lines Monday in the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza. The army carved out the corridor, which stretches from the border to the sea, early on in the war to sever northern Gaza from the south.
It was not possible to independently confirm battlefield reports from either side.
The military says 674 soldiers have been killed since the start of the war in Gaza, more than half of them in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack that triggered the fighting.
Over a million Palestinians fled the southern city of Rafah in May, after Israel launched operations there. Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to areas of Gaza where they had previously operated. Palestinians and aid groups say nowhere in the territory feels safe.
Israel began its military campaign in Gaza last October after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and abducted about 250.
Since then, Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 37,900 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. The war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and basic goods to Gaza, and people there are now totally dependent on aid. The top UN court has concluded there is a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza — a charge Israel strongly denies.
Speaking to members of the National Security College, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he believes Hamas is close to being eliminated in Gaza, and Israel remains committed to eradicating the remains of its forces.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said Israel was nearing its goal of destroying the military capabilities of Hamas, which has governed Gaza since 2007. Less intense operations would continue, he said.
“We are advancing to the end of the phase of eliminating the terrorist army of Hamas, and there will be a continuation to strike its remnants,” Netanyahu said.
