On Wednesday, Israeli forces encircled southern Gaza’s major city, pushing Hamas terrorists through streets and buildings in some of the most intense fighting of the two-month conflict.
Following heavy fighting and bombardment that reduced most of the north to ruins and forced nearly two million people to evacuate their homes, the conflict’s attention has shifted to the besieged territory’s south.
Witnesses told AFP that Israeli tanks, armored personnel carriers, and bulldozers were seen near the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis on Tuesday, forcing already displaced civilians to pack up and escape once more.
“Our forces are now encircling the Khan Yunis area in the southern Gaza Strip,” Israel’s army chief Herzi Halevi said late Tuesday.
“We have secured many Hamas strongholds in the northern Gaza Strip, and now we are operating against its strongholds in the south.”
According to the army’s Southern Command chief, Major General Yaron Finkelman, the battle on Tuesday was “the most intense day since the beginning of the ground operation” in late October.
Israel declared war on Hamas following the militant group’s October 7 attacks, which killed 1,200 people, largely civilians, according to Israeli authorities, and resulted in the kidnapping of approximately 240 hostages.
According to the most recent toll from the Hamas-run government media office, 16,248 individuals were murdered in Gaza, the majority of whom were women and children.
After scores of hostages were released during a brief truce, Israel has threatened to destroy Hamas and rescue the remaining 138 prisoners.
The Israeli military stated early Wednesday on X that several Hamas commanders were killed in an air strike near the Indonesia Hospital.
Sources in Hamas and another Palestinian militant group, Islamic Jihad, told AFP that their militants were engaging Israeli troops early Wednesday in an attempt to block them from entering Khan Yunis and neighboring areas.
Hundreds of civilians were killed and injured in massive strikes on areas east of Khan Yunis, according to the Hamas-run government media office.
Meanwhile, Hamas reported that locations in the middle and northern Gaza Strip were still being bombarded.
According to the Hamas-run health ministry, six persons were killed and 14 were injured in air attacks on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
‘Nowhere Is Safe’
Israel had already advised inhabitants in the north of the densely populated Gaza Strip to seek refuge in the south, with many moving to Khan Yunis in the belief that it would be safer.
As the conflict escalates, Israel has ordered residents to flee further south, causing “panic, fear, and anxiety,” according to Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees.
People were being forced into an area that was less than one-third the size of the Gaza Strip, he claimed, with highways to the south congested.
International relief organizations have decried the repeated orders to leave from one location to another, claiming that civilians were out of alternatives.
“Nowhere is safe in Gaza,” said United Nations humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths.
“Not hospital, not shelters, not refugee camps. No one is safe.”
Following calls to build safe havens for civilians, Israel’s army released a map that it claimed would allow Gazans to “evacuate from specific places for their safety if necessary.”
However, the UN condemned the map on Tuesday, claiming that it was impossible to create safe zones for civilians to flee to within Gaza.
“The so-called safe zones… are not scientific, they are not rational, they are not possible, and I think the authorities are aware of this,” said James Elder, spokesman for the UN children’s agency UNICEF.
According to the Norwegian Refugee Council, the violence in Gaza “now ranks among the worst assaults on any civilian population in our time and age,” and it also warned of the catastrophic public health repercussions of the impending winter.
With their things loaded onto donkey carts, wrecked trucks, and camels, Gazans fled south to avoid Israel’s increasing attack.
According to UN estimates, 1.9 million people are displaced in Gaza, accounting for about three-quarters of the population.
The Israeli military said it had encircled the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza and raided a Hamas Internal Security Forces command and control center.
It said the number of Israeli soldiers killed since the war began had risen to 82.
According to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, several people were killed and injured in Israeli strikes on Jabalia.
‘Shameful’
US President Joe Biden called for the condemnation of “sexual violence” committed by Hamas, after allegations of rape during the October 7 attacks, which the militant group denies.
Biden’s comments come after campaigners in Israel have criticised what they see as a muted international response to violence against women during the attack.
The United States, Israel’s most important ally, has also ramped up calls for greater efforts to prevent civilian deaths in Gaza.
US aid chief Samantha Power announced $21 million in new assistance for Gazans during a visit to neighbouring Egypt, including for hygiene, shelter and food supplies.
Israel said this week it was not seeking to force Palestinian civilians to permanently leave their homes in the Gaza Strip, and was asking aid groups to help provide shelter in the tiny coastal area of Al-Mawasi.
Fighting in Gaza resumed after the collapse on Friday of a Qatar-mediated truce that saw scores of Israeli and other hostages released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
Qatar’s ruler, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, said his country was “constantly working to renew” the truce and denounced what he called “shameful” international inaction over the war.
The war has sparked fears of a wider regional conflict, with frequent exchanges of fire with Iran-backed Hezbollah across Israel’s border with Lebanon.
A Lebanese soldier was killed by Israeli fire on a military post near the country’s southern border Tuesday, the army said.
Israel’s army acknowledged the incident, saying in a post on X that it had targeted a Hezbollah position in an effort “to eliminate an imminent threat”.
The occupied West Bank has also seen a surge in violence.
Israeli troops raided Faraa refugee camp in the north of the territory early Wednesday, sparking clashes that killed two people, one of them aged 16, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.
The latest deaths added to more than 250 people killed in the West Bank since October, according to Palestinian authorities.