Israeli forces are surrounding the town of Khan Younis, Israel’s top military commander said, as the ground offensive expands into the southern Gaza Strip.
“Sixty days after the start of the war, our forces are now encircling the Khan Younis area in the southern Gaza Strip,” army chief of staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said on Tuesday. Israeli.
“We have secured many Hamas strongholds in the northern Gaza Strip, and now we are operating against its strongholds in the south,” Halevi said, according to the Times of Israel newspaper, announcing the next phase of the offensive Israeli land against Palestinian territory. band.
“Anyone who thought that the Israeli army would not be able to resume fighting after the truce was wrong,” he added about the pause in hostilities which ended on Friday and which allowed the exchange of captives detained in Gaza against Palestinians. in Israeli prisons.
Hamas’ Osama Hamdan said there would be “no negotiations or (prisoner) exchanges” until the Israeli assault ends.
Speaking to reporters in Beirut, Hamdan also said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “responsible” for the lives of Israeli captives in Gaza, adding that his real The goal is “to eliminate the Palestinian people.”
The Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, said it had engaged the Israeli army in all areas of the Gaza Strip since Tuesday morning.
A statement published on the group’s Telegram channel claims to have totally or partially destroyed 24 military vehicles in Khan Younis, the second largest city in Gaza. He added that his snipers killed and wounded eight Israeli soldiers.
More than a million Palestinians have been displaced from northern Gaza since October 13, when the Israeli army ordered residents to evacuate to the south with 24 hours’ notice.
After the one-week truce expired, the Israeli army ordered the evacuation of Palestinians from southern Gaza.
The families of Khan Younis were packing up again and heading further south to Rafah, a town on the Egyptian border. Tel Aviv Tribune’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Rafah, said the narrow strip of land was already filled with people camping in the open and lacking basic services, including water and sanitation.
“Rafah is now the last remaining shelter for Palestinians, (but) bombing continues in this area as well,” he said.
Richard Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization (WHO) representative for the occupied Palestinian territories, told reporters via video link from Gaza that “the situation is getting worse by the hour.”
“The shelling is intensifying everywhere, including here in the southern regions, in Khan Younis and even in Rafah,” Peeperkorn said.
The WHO has repeatedly warned that the spread of diseases could be even deadlier than airstrikes. As disease surveillance systems are hampered, the UN agency has noted an increase in infectious diseases, including acute respiratory infections, scabies and diarrhea.
Thomas White, director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, said the agency was “not able to provide for the needs of more of internally displaced persons (IDPs).”
“Rafah normally has a population of 280,000 and is already home to around 470,000 displaced people. It won’t be able to cope with a doubling of its displaced population,” White said.
Adnan Abu Hasna, an UNRWA representative, said the agency expects more than a million people to arrive in Gaza’s southernmost town in the coming days.
“We have tens of thousands of families on the streets. They are already (sheltered) under random objects – pieces of nylon and wood. It is raining now. We will see the disaster,” he said, adding that around 50 to 70 aid trucks entering Gaza daily via the Rafah border were not enough to meet the needs of the displaced.
At the 44th Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit, which opened in the Qatari capital Doha on Tuesday, Qatar’s emir said the deaths of innocent Palestinians in Gaza amounted to “genocide committed by Israel “.
“It is a shame for the international community to allow this heinous crime to continue… with the systematic and deliberate killing of innocent and unarmed civilians,” Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said in his opening speech.
Local residents in northern Gaza, where a ground invasion began more than a month ago amid a relentless air offensive, also described appalling conditions. Munir al-Bursh, director general of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, spoke to Tel Aviv Tribune from Kamal Adwan Hospital, which is hosting thousands of refugees seeking safety.
“Israeli occupying forces have besieged the facilities from all sides. The patients and those who have sought shelter here are gripped by fear and overwhelmed by horror,” he said. “Israeli forces are attacking with the aim of forcibly evacuating everyone inside the hospital. They are patients, victims and displaced civilians.
The WHO recorded 203 attacks on health facilities between October 7 and November 28, a number it called “unprecedented.”
