By Wafaa Shurafa, Jack Jeffery and Sam Magdy, Associated Press
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel mentioned Tuesday that its troops had entered Gaza’s second-largest metropolis as intensified bombardment despatched streams of ambulances and vehicles racing to hospitals with wounded and useless Palestinians, together with youngsters, in a bloody new part of the conflict.
The navy mentioned its forces had been “in the heart” of Khan Younis, which has emerged as the primary goal within the expanded floor offensive into southern Gaza that Israel says goals to destroy Hamas, which has been designated as a terrorist group by the United States, Canada and the European Union. Military officers mentioned they had been engaged within the “most intense day” of battles because the floor offensive started greater than 5 weeks in the past, with heavy firefights additionally going down in northern Gaza.
In different developments, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned the navy must retain open-ended safety management over the Gaza Strip lengthy after the conflict ends.
Netanyahu mentioned Gaza must be demilitarized and that the one physique able to guaranteeing that will be the Israeli navy.
“No international force can be responsible for this,” he mentioned at a information convention. “I’m not ready to close my eyes and accept any other arrangement.”
The assault into the south is triggering a brand new wave of displaced Palestinians nearly two months into the conflict, elevating warnings from reduction teams that they will’t sustain as a result of provides are inadequate and fight prevents distribution. The U.N. mentioned 1.87 million individuals — greater than 80% of Gaza’s inhabitants — have been pushed from their houses. New navy evacuation orders are squeezing individuals into ever-smaller areas of the tiny coastal strip’s south.
Bombardment has grown fiercer throughout the territory, together with areas the place Palestinians are informed to hunt security. In the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah, simply north of Khan Younis, a strike Tuesday destroyed a home the place dozens of displaced individuals had been sheltering. At least 34 individuals had been killed, together with at the very least six youngsters, based on an Associated Press reporter on the hospital who counted the our bodies.
Footage from the scene confirmed girls screaming from an higher ground of a home shattered to a concrete shell. In the wreckage under, males pulled the limp physique of a kid from underneath a slab subsequent to a burning automotive. At the close by hospital, medics tried to resuscitate a younger boy and lady, bloodied and unmoving on a stretcher.
Under U.S. stress to forestall additional mass casualties, Israel says it’s being extra exact because it widens its offensive and is taking further steps to induce civilians to evacuate out of its path. Weeks of bombardment and a floor offensive obliterated a lot of northern Gaza.
Israel says it should take away Hamas from energy to forestall a repeat of the Oct. 7 assault that ignited the conflict. In the shock assault, Hamas and different Palestinian militants killed about 1,200 individuals, principally civilians, and took captive some 240 males, girls and youngsters.
Its assault has killed greater than 15,890 individuals in Gaza — 70% of them girls and youngsters — with greater than 42,000 wounded, based on the Health Ministry in Gaza. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths. It says a whole lot have been killed or wounded since a weeklong cease-fire ended Friday, and lots of nonetheless are trapped underneath rubble.
The navy accuses Hamas of utilizing civilians as human shields when working in dense residential areas. But Israel has not supplied accounting for focusing on in particular person strikes, a few of which have leveled total metropolis blocks and complexes of dozens of multi-story residence towers.
Military Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi acknowledged that Israeli forces use heavy drive in opposition to civilian buildings, saying combatants preserve weapons in homes and buildings so fighters in civilian garments can use them to fireplace on troops.
“Striking them requires significant use of fire, both to target the enemy but also to, of course, protect our forces,” he mentioned. “Therefore the forces operate powerfully.”
BATTLES IN KHAN YOUNIS AND NORTH GAZA
Halevi mentioned his forces had begun the “third phase of the ground operations,” shifting in opposition to Hamas within the south after seizing a lot of the north. Israel has not given particular particulars on troop actions.
Residents mentioned troops superior to Bani Suheila, on Khan Younis’ jap edge. Israeli forces additionally seem like shifting to partially lower throughout the strip between Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah. Satellite photographs from Sunday confirmed round 150 Israeli tanks, armored personnel carriers and different autos on the principle highway between the 2 cities.
The previous days introduced a few of the heaviest bombardment of the complete conflict, the U.N.’s humanitarian affairs workplace OCHA mentioned.
Witnesses mentioned a strike Tuesday hit a faculty in Khan Younis the place a whole lot of displaced individuals had been sheltering. Casualties overwhelmed the close by Nasser Hospital, the place wounded males and youngsters had been lain on a bloody ground amid a tangle of IV tubes. In the morgue, a girl draped herself over the stretcher the place her useless husband and little one lay amongst at the very least 9 our bodies.
“What’s happening here is unimaginable,” mentioned Hamza al-Bursh, who lives close to the college. “They strike indiscriminately.”
In northern Gaza, the navy mentioned its troops had been battling Hamas within the Jabaliya refugee camp and the district of Shujaiya, capturing Hamas positions and destroying rocket launchers and underground infrastructure.
The battles within the north signaled the robust resistance from Hamas since Israeli forces moved in on Oct. 27. The navy says 86 of its troopers have been killed within the Gaza offensive and that 1000’s of Hamas fighters have been killed, although it has not produced proof.
Even after weeks of bombardment, Hamas’ high chief in Gaza, Yehya Sinwar — whose location is unknown — was in a position to conduct complicated cease-fire negotiations and orchestrate the discharge of greater than 100 Israeli and international hostages in trade for 240 Palestinian prisoners final week. Palestinian militants have additionally saved up their rocket fireplace into Israel.
FEWER PLACES TO GO
Israel ordered the full-scale evacuation of northern Gaza within the early days of the conflict and has barred individuals who left from returning. An unknown variety of individuals — probably a number of hundred thousand — stay within the north, however the remainder of Gaza’s inhabitants of two.3 million is squeezed into the 90 sq. miles of central and southern Gaza.
Since shifting into the south, the Israeli navy has ordered individuals out of almost two dozen neighborhoods in and round Khan Younis. That additional lowered the world the place civilians can search refuge by greater than 1 / 4. It was not clear how many individuals adopted the evacuation name.
“Nowhere is safe in Gaza, and there is nowhere left to go,” Lynn Hastings, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, mentioned Monday. “The conditions required to deliver aid to the people of Gaza do not exist. If possible, an even more hellish scenario is about to unfold.”
For the previous two days, support distribution — primarily simply provides of flour and water — has been attainable solely within the metropolis of Rafah, on the far south by the border, the U.N. mentioned. Locations deeper inside Gaza, together with Khan Younis, Deir al-Balah and northern Gaza, couldn’t be reached due to preventing.
Dr. Nasser Bolbol, head of neonatal intensive care on the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis, mentioned acute starvation was spreading, with some deaths of youngsters from dehydration and undernourishment, after almost two months with solely restricted support coming into the territory, underneath an Israeli seal.
“Gaza is entirely covered in death and darkness,” he mentioned.
STILL HOSTAGE
Family members of hostages nonetheless held in Gaza held tense talks with Netanyahu and the conflict cupboard Tuesday. Observers current mentioned greater than 100 individuals attended the almost three-hour assembly. Some kin shouted at cupboard members, perceiving they didn’t have any instant plans to rescue some 138 hostages nonetheless captive. Nearly half the room left in disappointment earlier than the assembly ended.
During the gathering, 5 hostages launched through the truce shared harrowing particulars of their expertise. One spoke of Hamas fighters “touching” feminine hostages, and one other mentioned militants shaved off a male hostage’s physique hair to humiliate him, based on a gaggle representing the hostages’ households. Others mentioned they had been disadvantaged of water.
The Associated Press has not been in a position to confirm stories that feminine and male hostages skilled sexual abuse in Gaza.
“It was not a relaxed discussion,” mentioned Noam Peri, whose 80-year-old father remains to be hostage. “After 60 days, people are tired and worried.”
Magdy and Jeffery reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Lee Keath in Cairo and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”