Dozens of people remain under the rubble after attacks on two residential neighborhoods in Khan Younis.
At least 28 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on two residential areas of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
A neighborhood in Hamad was hit in shelling on Saturday, said Tel Aviv Tribune’s Youmna ElSayed, reporting from Khan Younis. Dozens of people were also injured in the attack, which mainly killed children.
Another bombing then targeted a house in the town of Khuza’a, east of Khan Younis, she said.
“The total number of people killed is 28 people, but dozens were injured and dozens more remain under the rubble, especially in the residential area of Hamad,” ElSayed added.
The director of the Nasser medical complex in the south said his facility had received 26 bodies and 23 seriously injured people after the Hamad attack, according to the AFP news agency.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have moved to the southern Gaza Strip after Israel ordered them to evacuate the northern region, saying it would be “safer” amid Israeli forces’ ground offensive over there.
Two thirds of them are now homeless.
In recent weeks, Israeli bombardments have also intensified in the south.
Residents of Khuzaa, Abassan, Bani Suheila and al-Qarara in eastern Khan Younis, the largest city in southern Gaza, said Israeli planes dropped thousands of leaflets overnight Wednesday and early Thursday, warning them to leave.
“For your safety, you must immediately evacuate your places of residence and head to known shelters,” the leaflets state. “Anyone near the terrorists or their facilities is putting their life in danger, and every home used by the terrorists will be targeted. »
It was unclear where residents of eastern Khan Younis were expected to flee, as Israel had previously ordered residents to resettle in that area for their safety.
In an interview with a US television station on Friday, Mark Regev, an aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said they were asking people to move because they “don’t want to see civilians caught in the crossfire.” , indicating that the Israeli army plans to attack Hamas in southern Gaza after subduing the north.
Regev added that Israeli troops will have to advance into the city to clear Hamas fighters from what he sees as underground tunnels and bunkers, but that such “huge infrastructure” does not exist in less built-up areas. West.
“I’m pretty sure they won’t need to move anymore” if they move west, he noted.
“We are asking them to move to an area where hopefully there will be tents and a field hospital,” he said, adding that the western areas are also closer to the Rafah border post with Egypt, where humanitarian aid could be delivered. as quickly as possible.”
But the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said that currently his organization “does not consider any part of Gaza to be safe.”
Since October 7, more than 12,000 people in the Gaza Strip, including 5,000 children, have been killed due to Israeli bombardment of the besieged enclave that is home to around 2.3 million people.
