THE Israeli military has launched a new attack on the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, killing 70 people, according to medics, after ordering Palestinians to leave several neighborhoods including an area designated by the military as part of a humanitarian zone.
The Palestinian civil defense in the area estimated that 400 people sheltering in the town were affected by the order, which covers the eastern part of Al-Mawasi, a sandy strip of land with no infrastructure, where Palestinians have sought shelter in tent encampments in recent months.
The Israeli military claims Hamas militants in Khan Younis and parts of Al-Mawasi use the area to launch rockets into Israel. “We evacuated from the eastern area, they asked us to evacuate, we took our children and left. There is no safe place left in the Gaza Strip. We are out walking on the streets, not knowing where to go,” said Gaza resident Osama Qudeih, as quoted by The GuardianTuesday (23/7).
One woman collapsed from exhaustion after saying it was her seventh or eighth displacement. “Every day we are displaced. Where are the countries? Where is the world, where are the presidents, where are they? Come and see how we are, our children, and what is happening to us,” Kholoud al-Dadas said, hugging her children tightly.
The military said it was adjusting the boundaries of the designated humanitarian zone in Al-Mawasi to keep civilians away from the fighting area. Gaza health officials said those killed and wounded were trapped in the strikes in and around Khan Younis, and that others were likely buried under rubble or left on the side of the road because ambulances could not reach them.
Gaza medics also said many people were killed in tank attacks on the town of Bani Suhaila and other towns on the eastern edge of Khan Younis, while the area was also bombarded from the air. The Israeli military did not comment on the casualty figures. But in a statement, the military said its fighter jets and tanks attacked and eliminated terrorists in the area.
Read also: Israel Kills 20 Gazans After Ordering Evacuation
It said the forces targeted more than 30 terror infrastructure sites in Khan Younis. Israeli warplanes also struck weapons storage facilities, observation posts, tunnels and buildings used by Hamas militants, it added.
Local news agency He died reported that a series of heavy bombardments began soon after Israeli forces dropped leaflets urging residents to evacuate. Smoke billowed from the ruined city’s rooftops. Wounded people flooded into Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis as the facility appealed for blood donations.
Mohammed Sakr, a spokesman for Nasser Hospital, told Al Jazeera that they were overwhelmed with cases, and treating patients amid a lack of supplies. “Dozens of cases are lying on the floor. We don’t have beds to accommodate patients. We are swimming in blood,” he said.
Read also: UNRWA Reopens Health Center in Khan Younis
Khan Younis was largely destroyed in months of heavy fighting before Monday’s attack, but hundreds of thousands of people have returned to seek shelter in tents in the eastern part of the city after fleeing other parts of Gaza. Images from Khan Younis showed Palestinians fleeing the area in cars and donkey carts, using whatever means they could find to escape.
Palestinians in the territory, the United Nations and other international aid agencies have stressed that there is no safe place in Gaza, and that areas designated as humanitarian safe zones are still being targeted. An attack on Al-Mawasi earlier this month killed at least 90 people and wounded hundreds when Israeli forces said they had targeted the head of Hamas’s military wing.
More than 39,000 people have been killed in Israel’s offensive in Gaza since October 7 last year, when Hamas militants attacked the Israeli territory, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages. The Palestinian Health Ministry also says more than 89,000 people have now been wounded after a series of intense Israeli attacks across the territory in recent weeks.
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The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said Israeli forces had fired on a UN convoy heading to Gaza City on Monday (22/7). “Heavy shelling by Israeli forces on a UN convoy heading to Gaza City,” he said, adding that one vehicle had been hit with five bullets as it waited in front of an Israeli checkpoint near the Gaza River, causing serious damage.
“Although there were no casualties, our team had to duck and take cover. The teams were traveling in clearly marked UN armored vehicles and wearing UN vests,” he said, adding that the convoy had coordinated and approved its travel with Israeli authorities. An Israel Defense Forces spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on the incident.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi commented on Lazzarini’s description of the attack, calling it a war crime. “Gaza has not only become a graveyard for children. Gaza has become a graveyard for international law, a shameful stain on the entire international order,” he said. (P-5)
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