Israeli forces carried out new raids in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, hours before Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu was due to address the US Congress.
The latest Israeli attacks destroyed homes in towns east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza and thousands of people were forced to head west to seek shelter, residents said.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said it had received distress calls from residents trapped in their homes in Bani Suhaila, east of Khan Younis but was unable to reach the town.
Israel’s military, which is trying to eradicate the Islamist militant group Hamas after the October 7th attack on Israel, said it had been operating in areas from which fighters had been able to fire rockets into Israel and attack Israeli troops.
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Gaza health officials said Israeli military strikes in the past 24 hours had killed at least 55 people, the latest casualties in a war that health authorities in the enclave say has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians.
“Where should we go? Shall we cross into the sea?” said Ghada, who has been displaced with her family six times during the war, said from Hamas City in northwestern Khan Younis.
“We are exhausted, starved, and want the war to end now, now not an hour later. Every day means more families are wiped off the registration book,” she told Reuters via a chat app.
Local residents said they had been ordered to head west towards a designated humanitarian area, but that the area was now unsafe.
Israeli forces also carried out air strikes on several areas of central and northern Gaza Strip, killing and wounding several Palestinians, health officials said.
Residents of Rafah, near the border with Egypt, said Israeli forces had blown up several houses in the west of the city.
Some Palestinians who gathered at a hospital in Khan Younis before funerals criticised the United States, Israel’s most important international ally, for welcoming Mr Netanyahu.
The Israel leader was due to address Congress later on Wednesday and to meet President Joe Biden at the White House on Thursday. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he would meet Mr Netanyahu in Florida on Friday.
A senior Hamas official told Reuters: “The Congress invitation to Netanyahu to make a speech gives legitimacy to the crimes of the war of genocide in Gaza. Receiving a war criminal is a shame to all Americans.”
Israel has rejected accusations brought by South Africa at the UN’s top court that its military operation in Gaza is a state-led genocide campaign against Palestinians. It has reacted angrily to a decision by the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor to seek an arrest warrant against Mr Netanyahu.
Mr Netanyahu said this week a deal to release Israelis held captive in Gaza could be near. But Hamas officials said the Israeli leader was stalling and that they had not seen any change in the Israeli stance that would allow an agreement to be reached.
Hamas wants a ceasefire agreement to end the war in Gaza. Mr Netanyahu says the war cannot end before Hamas is eradicated.
Hamas-led fighters triggered the war on October 7th by storming into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 captives, according to Israeli tallies. Some 120 hostages are still being held though Israel believes one in three are dead. – Reuters