By WAFAA SHURAFA, SAMY MAGDY and JACK JEFFERY (Associated Press)
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel renewed calls Monday for mass evacuations from the southern city of Khan Younis, the place tens of hundreds of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge in current weeks, because the army widened its floor offensive and bombarded targets throughout the Gaza Strip.
The expanded assault posed a lethal alternative for tons of of hundreds of Palestinians — both keep within the path of Israeli forces or flee to squeeze into progressively tinier slivers of the Gaza Strip, with no assure of security. Aid staff warned that the mass motion would worsen the already dire humanitarian disaster within the territory.
“Another wave of displacement is underway, and the humanitarian situation worsens by the hour,” the Gaza chief of the U.N. company for Palestinian refugees, Thomas White, mentioned in a submit on X.
Israel has vowed to remove Gaza’s Hamas rulers, whose Oct. 7 assault into Israel triggered the deadliest Israeli-Palestinian violence in many years. The battle has already killed hundreds of Palestinians and displaced over three-fourths of the territory’s inhabitants of two.3 million individuals. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist group by the United States, Canada and the European Union.
Already below mounting strain from its high ally, the United States, Israel seems to be racing to strike a loss of life blow in opposition to Hamas — if that’s doable, given the group’s deep roots in Palestinian society — earlier than any new cease-fire. But the mounting toll, which Palestinian well being officers say has killed a number of hundred civilians since a weeklong truce ended Friday, is more likely to additional improve worldwide strain to return to the negotiating desk.
It might additionally render even bigger components of the remoted territory uninhabitable.
Airstrikes and the bottom offensive have remodeled a lot of the north, together with massive areas in Gaza City, right into a rubble-filled wasteland.
Hundreds of hundreds of residents fled south through the assault. Now round 2 million individuals — many of the territory’s inhabitants — are crowded into the 230 sq. kilometers (90 sq. miles) that make up south and central Gaza, the place Israel’s floor offensive is increasing. Their solely escape is to different components of that space, as each Israel and neighboring Egypt have refused to simply accept any refugees.
FIGHTING IN CENTRAL GAZA
Residents mentioned Monday they heard airstrikes and explosions in and round Khan Younis in a single day after the army dropped leaflets warning individuals to relocate farther south towards the border with Egypt.
The U.N. mentioned Israel has ordered an space constituting a few fifth of Khan Younis to evacuate, an space that was house to some 117,000 individuals earlier than the battle and now hosts tens of hundreds displaced from elsewhere. It mentioned 21 shelters housing 50,000 individuals — the overwhelming majority from northern Gaza — have been within the evacuation zone. Large areas east of Khan Younis have been additionally ordered to flee.
The army warned civilians Monday to keep away from the primary north-south freeway between Khan Younis and the central city of Deir al-Balah, saying the highway had change into a “battlefield.” That indicated Israeli troops have been approaching Khan Younis from the northeast, probably with plans to chop central Gaza off from the south.
Al Jazeera tv aired footage of medics rescuing individuals wounded by what appeared to have been a strike on a automobile on that stretch of freeway. An Israeli tank could possibly be seen simply up the highway.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli army spokesman, mentioned the military is pursuing Hamas with “maximum force” within the north and south whereas attempting to attenuate hurt to civilians.
He pointed to a map that divides southern Gaza into dozens of blocks with a purpose to give “precise instructions” to residents on the place to evacuate.
Some Palestinians have ignored previous evacuation orders, saying they don’t really feel any safer within the areas the place they’re informed to hunt refuge — which have additionally been repeatedly bombed. Many additionally worry they are going to by no means be allowed again to their houses. The army has barred those that fled the north from returning, even through the cease-fire.
“The level of human suffering is intolerable,” Mirjana Spoljaric, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, mentioned throughout a uncommon go to to Gaza. She additionally known as for the instant launch of scores of hostages captured by Palestinian terrorists through the Oct. 7 assault.
“It is unacceptable that civilians have no safe place to go in Gaza, and with a military siege in place there is also no adequate humanitarian response currently possible.”
RISING TOLL
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza mentioned the loss of life toll within the territory since Oct. 7 has surpassed 15,890 individuals – 70% of them girls and youngsters — with greater than 42,000 wounded. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.
Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra mentioned tons of have been killed or wounded for the reason that cease-fire’s finish early Friday, with many nonetheless trapped below rubble.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah acquired 32 our bodies in a single day after Israeli strikes throughout central Gaza, mentioned Omar al-Darawi, an administrative worker. Associated Press footage confirmed girls in tears, kneeling over the our bodies of family members and kissing them.
The army mentioned plane struck some 200 Hamas targets in a single day, with floor troops working “in parallel,” with out elaborating. It mentioned troops in northern Gaza uncovered a militant hideout in a faculty after coming below assault. Inside, they discovered two tunnel shafts, one in all which had been booby-trapped, in addition to explosives and weapons, the army mentioned.
It shouldn’t be doable to independently verify battlefield stories from both facet.
Israel says it targets Hamas operatives, not civilians, and blames civilian casualties on Hamas, accusing them of working in residential neighborhoods. Still, it doesn’t present accounting for its targets in particular person strikes.
In addition to leaflets dropped over Gaza, the army has used cellphone calls and radio and TV broadcasts to induce individuals to depart particular areas.
Israel claims to have killed hundreds of militants, with out offering proof. Israel says no less than 81 of its troopers have been killed.
U.S. PRESSURE
The U.S. is urgent Israel to keep away from extra mass displacements and civilian deaths, a message underscored by Vice President Kamala Harris throughout a go to to the area. She additionally mentioned the U.S. wouldn’t enable the compelled relocation of Palestinians out of Gaza or the occupied West Bank, or the redrawing of Gaza’s borders.
But it’s unclear how far the Biden administration is prepared or capable of go in urgent Israel to rein within the offensive, even because the White House faces rising strain from its allies in Congress.
The U.S. has pledged unwavering assist to Israel for the reason that Oct. 7 assault, which killed over 1,200 individuals, largely civilians, together with dashing munitions and different assist to Israel.
Israel has rejected U.S. options that management over postwar Gaza be handed over to the internationally acknowledged Palestinian Authority as a part of a renewed effort to resolve the general battle by establishing a Palestinian state.
Hopes for one more short-term truce pale after Israel known as its negotiators house over the weekend. Hamas mentioned talks on releasing any extra of the scores of hostages seized on Oct. 7 have to be tied to a everlasting cease-fire.
The earlier truce facilitated the discharge of 105 of the roughly 240 Israeli and overseas hostages taken to Gaza through the Oct. 7 assault, and the discharge of 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Most of these launched by each side have been girls and youngsters.
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Magdy and Jeffery reported from Cairo.
Full AP protection at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Source: www.bostonherald.com”