By Suhaib Salem and Nidal al-Mughrabi
Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling hit Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, as Israel continued its offensive against Hamas militants with renewed force following the end of a truce in the long-running war. almost two months.
Palestinian residents said that in the last few hours houses and fields were attacked and three mosques in Khan Younis were destroyed. Columns of smoke rose into the sky.
In the city of Deir Al-Balah, in the center of the strip, nine Palestinians, including several children, were killed in an airstrike, according to Gazan health authorities.
The Israeli military stated that in the past 24 hours combined attacks by its ground, air and naval forces hit 400 militant targets and killed an unknown number of Hamas fighters.
Hamas media reported that around 200 Palestinians have died since the end of the truce, adding to the more than 15,000 deaths in Gaza since the start of the war, according to health authorities in the enclave.
The warring sides blamed each other for the failure of the seven-day truce, during which Hamas released hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
The United Nations declared that the fighting would aggravate a situation of extreme humanitarian emergency. “Hell on Earth has returned to Gaza,” said Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian office in Geneva.
The first aid trucks since the end of the truce entered the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on Saturday, Egyptian security and Red Crescent sources told Reuters.
The conflict erupted on October 7, when Hamas militants crossed into southern Israel and killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. More than 200 hostages were taken back to Gaza.
Israel responded with a ferocious bombing campaign and a ground offensive that has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced hundreds of thousands of people in what has become the bloodiest episode of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
On Friday there was intense shelling in Khan Younis and Rafah in the south, according to doctors and witnesses. Displaced Gazans have taken refuge there due to fighting in the enclave’s densely populated north, but residents said they feared Israel was preparing to advance ground troops into the south.
Leaflets dropped by Israel on the eastern areas of Khan Younis ordered residents of four villages to evacuate, not to other areas of Khan Younis as in the past, but further south to Rafah. “You have been warned,” the pamphlets said in Arabic.
Residents hit the road with their belongings piled into cars, seeking shelter further west.
DISTRIBUTION OF BLAME
The Israeli military claimed it had killed numerous squads of fighters in northern Gaza, including in a shootout at a mosque used by Islamic Jihad militants as a command post. In a sign that he was tightening his control over the north, he also ordered civilians in several districts of Gaza City to immediately evacuate the area.
In southern Israel, rocket sirens sounded early Saturday in communities near the Gaza border, but no serious damage or casualties were reported.
Reuters could not confirm reports about the battlefield.
The truce that began on November 24 was extended twice. However, after seven days in which women, children and foreign hostages were freed, as well as several Palestinian prisoners, mediators were unable to find a way to free more.
Israel accused Hamas of refusing to release all the women it was holding. A Palestinian official said the breakup occurred over Israeli female soldiers.
Qatar, which has played a central role as a mediator, stated that negotiations were continuing with the Israelis and Palestinians to restore the truce, but that new Israeli bombings on Gaza had complicated matters.
An Israeli official in Washington declared it a “very high priority” to secure the release of as many hostages as possible.
“And to do so, under the agreed terms, Israel is willing to take additional pauses,” the official said, adding: “We can negotiate while we continue fighting.”
However, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said in Istanbul that the chance for peace in Gaza after the pause had been lost for the moment due to what he called Israel’s intransigent attitude.
In a sign of the danger of the war spreading to other fronts, Israel shelled Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon for the second day. Hezbollah declared that one of its fighters had been killed.
Source: Ambito
