Middle East

Israeli forces hit Khan Younis in southern Gaza with tank fire and air strikes

The latest fighting took place after Israel announced plans to pull back some troops amid global concern

Palestinians cross a flooded street at a makeshift camp housing displaced Palestinians, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the militant group Hamas. Photograph: AFP via Getty Images

Tue Jan 2 2024 - 20:16

Israeli forces attacked Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip with tank fire and air strikes on Tuesday, residents said, and Israeli ground troops and Hamas militants also battled in other parts of the shattered Palestinian enclave.

Israel said its troops had killed dozens of militants in Gaza’s north in the past day. Residents said Israeli tanks had shelled parts of the Al-Bureij refugee camp in the central area.

The Gaza health ministry said 207 people had been killed in the past 24 hours, bringing the total recorded Palestinian death toll to more than 22,000 in nearly three months of warfare in the Hamas-ruled enclave.

Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said the operations in the south around Khan Younis were focused on areas above the tunnel network where Hamas leaders were believed to be hiding.

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“We are reaching them all ways. There already is engagement and there are hostages there too sadly,” he told troops in Gaza in footage shown on Israeli television.

“This will continue as high-intensity efforts in the heart of Khan Younis,” he said.

The latest fighting took place after Israel announced plans to pull back some troops, signalling a new phase in the war against Hamas amid global concern over the plight of Gaza residents.

Israeli bombardments have reduced much of the territory to rubble and engulfed its 2.3 million residents in a humanitarian disaster in which many thousands have been left destitute and threatened by famine due to a lack of food supplies. Israeli officials say the offensive has many months to run.

In a tent camp for displaced Palestinians in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, Shadi Maarouf, his wife Safeya and their six children gathered around a campfire, braving the cold and dark.

After a perilous journey from their home in Beit Lahia in the north, constantly fleeing Israeli air strikes, they ended up in a tent in Rafah with no basic amenities.

“We have nothing. We are living in cold, as you can see. We use straps of clothes for the fire, there is no firewood,” Mr Maarouf told Reuters.

“There is no water even to clean up or wash ourselves. If I want to pray, I perform ablution using the sand. There is no drinking water. There is no tent to protect us.”

In its daily briefing, the Israeli military said in the past day its forces had targeted militants in Gaza City in the north of the enclave and in unspecified locations along the Mediterranean coast.

Troops also dismantled rocket launching sites in Khan Younis and in a United Nations school in Al-Bureij, the military said.

Gaza residents said Israeli warplanes and tanks stepped up bombardments of the eastern and northern areas of Khan Younis, where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge after being forced from their homes elsewhere in the densely-populated territory.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli forces had hit its headquarters in Khan Younis, resulting in several deaths and wounded among displaced people sheltering there.

Hamas and its Islamic Jihad allies said in separate statements they had fired mortar bombs and anti-tank rockets against Israeli forces in Khan Younis and were stopping them advancing to the western area. Israel made no comment on these reports.

Gallant said that in the north of Gaza, Israel had destroyed 12 Hamas regiments and only a few thousand militants remained out of 15,000-18,000 that were in the area. Others had fled to the south, he said.

Hamas showed its continued ability to target Israel after more than 12 weeks of the war, firing rockets at Tel Aviv.

The war was triggered by a surprise Hamas-led attack on Israeli towns on October 7th that Israel says killed 1,200 people – the bloodiest single day in the Jewish state’s 75-year history.

Gaza health authorities say Israel’s retaliatory offensive has so far killed at least 22,185 Palestinians, in the deadliest chapter of the decades-long Israel-Palestinian conflict. – Reuters

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