Israel ordered residents to leave the center of the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday and bombed the Strip from north to south after the United States used its veto in the United Nations Security Council to protect its ally from a demand for a ceasefire.
An Arabic-speaking Israeli spokesman published a map on the X platform showing 6 areas with numbers in Khan Yunis that residents were asked to evacuate “urgently.” The map included parts of the city center that had not been subject to such orders before.
Israel issued similar warnings last week before storming the eastern parts of the city. Residents said they feared the new evacuation orders would signal another attack.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s correspondent said that the Israeli occupation army launched new raids on the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, at dawn on Sunday. Heavy artillery shelling also targeted east of Khan Yunis, and large explosions were heard in the area.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza stated that the Israeli occupation army targeted the Jordanian field hospital in the city on Sunday with a shell that caused damage to its contents.
Zainab Khalil (57 years old), who was displaced with 30 of her relatives and friends in Khan Yunis, near Jalal Street, where the occupation forces ordered residents to leave, said, “It may be a matter of time before they storm our area as well. We were hearing the bombing all night.”
She continued, “We do not sleep at night. We remain awake, trying to put the children to sleep. We remain awake for fear of bombing the place, so we are forced to run carrying the children. And during the day another tragedy begins: How do we feed the children?”
The bodies of martyrs and an influx of wounded arrived overnight at the crowded Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis. A paramedic rushed from the ambulance carrying the body of a girl wearing a pink uniform.
Inside, wounded children were crying and writhing in pain on the floor while nursing staff rushed to comfort them. Outside, the bodies were lined up and wrapped in white shrouds.
Targeting hospitals
Footage from inside Jaffa Hospital in Deir al-Balah showed severe damage resulting from a raid on a nearby mosque. The ruins of the mosque could be seen through the broken windows.
Medical workers in northern Gaza, where some of the heaviest fighting is taking place, accused Israel of targeting hospitals and ambulances. A paramedic working in ambulances in the Shujaiya neighborhood in Gaza City told Reuters that ambulance crews are often unable to respond to calls they receive from the wounded.
The paramedic, who requested to remain anonymous, added, “We tried before in the past days to go there, and our teams came under Israeli fire.”
Muhammad Salha, a director at Al Awda Hospital, said that Israeli forces surrounded the hospital for days with tanks, and shot those who tried to enter or exit. He added that they shot dead a woman in the street and a hospital worker who was standing at a window.
The Ministry of Health said that Israeli forces shot dead two medical staff inside Kamal Adwan Hospital, also in northern Gaza, yesterday, Saturday.
As stated in the daily press conference of the government media office in Gaza, “The occupation snipers surrounding Al Awda Hospital killed two health personnel and killed and wounded many pregnant women when they arrived at the hospital to give birth.”
Jaffa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip announced that it had stopped working the day before yesterday, Friday, due to the severe damage it sustained when Israel bombed a nearby mosque.
Families in the northern Gaza Strip posted messages on the Internet urging emergency crews to enter Gaza City.
Unconditional American support
Unconditional American support encouraged Israel to continue its violent attack on the Gaza Strip, as the number of martyrs in the Strip exceeded 17,700, most of whom were children and women, and about 49,000 were wounded, with thousands more missing and believed to have been martyred under the rubble.
In a vote at the United Nations the day before yesterday, Friday, 13 members of the Security Council supported a draft resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire for humanitarian reasons, but Washington used its veto against the draft resolution, while Britain abstained from voting.
Washington continues to support Israel in its insistence that the ceasefire will only benefit the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), as Deputy US Ambassador to the United Nations Robert Wood said before the Security Council, “We do not support this resolution’s call for an unsustainable ceasefire that will only result in… Planting the seeds of the next war.
The administration of US President Joe Biden also used emergency powers under the Arms Export Control Act to sell about 14,000 tank shells to Israel without review by Congress.
These missiles are part of a larger sale, according to what Reuters revealed in a report the day before yesterday, Friday, when it said that the value of the package that the Biden administration is asking Congress to approve exceeds $500 million and includes 45,000 shells for Israeli Merkava tanks.