Israeli forces storm Khan Younis in south Gaza, killing scores of Palestinians

GAZA: Israeli forces stormed southern Gaza’s main city on Tuesday in what they called the most intense day of combat in five weeks of ground operations against Hamas, and hospitals struggled to cope with scores of Palestinian dead and wounded.

Israel said its troops – who were backed by warplanes – had reached the heart of Khan Younis and were also surrounding the city in what appeared to be the biggest ground assault in Gaza since a truce with Hamas unravelled last week.

“We are in the most intense day since the beginning of the ground operation,” the commander of the Israeli military’s Southern Command, General Yaron Finkelman, said in a statement.

He said Israeli forces were also fighting in Jabalia, a large urban refugee camp and Hamas hotbed in northern Gaza next to Gaza City, and in Shuja’iyya, east of the city. “We are in the heart of Jabalia, in the heart of Shuja’iyya, and now also in the heart of Khan Younis,” he said.

Hamas’ armed wing, the al Qassam Brigades, said its fighters had destroyed or damaged 24 Israeli military vehicles and snipers had killed or wounded eight Israeli soldiers in ongoing clashes in various areas of Khan Younis.

Separately, Gaza health officials said many people were killed in an Israeli strike on houses in Deir al-Balah, north of Khan Younis. Dr Eyad Al-Jabri, head of the Shuhada Al-Aqsa Hospital there, said at least 45 were killed.

After days of ordering residents to flee the area, Israeli forces dropped new leaflets on Tuesday with instructions to stay inside shelters and hospitals during the assault.

“Don’t get out. Going out is dangerous. You have been warned,” said the leaflets, addressed to residents of six districts amounting to around a quarter of Khan Younis.

“Sixty days after the war began, our forces are now encircling the Khan Younis area,” said Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, chief of Israel’s General Staff.

“We have secured many Hamas strongholds in the northern Gaza Strip, and now we are operating against its strongholds in the south,” Halevi told a press conference.

The Israelis, who largely seized Gaza’s northern half last month before pausing for the week-long truce, claims Hamas commanders are holed up in part of a vast underground tunnel network in the territory.

Hamas said there would no more negotiations or exchange of detainees until Israeli “aggression” against Gaza stopped. More than 100 of the 240 hostages Hamas took in its October incursion were freed during the seven-day truce.

The United States again pressed its close ally Israel to uphold international humanitarian law and do more to reduce harm to civilians in the war’s next phase. Despite the mounting death toll, it said Israel was now showing some receptiveness to the calls.

Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, a major humanitarian agency, disagreed strongly, saying the Israeli onslaught in Gaza “can in no way be described as self-defence”:

“There must also be accountability for this, from political and military leaders as well as those who provided arms and support … The situation in Gaza is a total failure of our shared humanity. The killing must stop,” he said in a statement.

Israeli bombardments have driven 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents from their homes, most fleeing south. Crowded southern areas are now sheltering triple their usual population.