Israel has ordered more evacuations in and around Gaza’s second-largest city of Khan Younis, followed by heavy bombardment, as the military’s offensive shifted to the southern half of the territory where Israeli officials assert that leaders of the Hamas militant group are hiding.
This is as the death toll from Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has surged to 15,523 since the start of the conflict on Oct. 7, the Health Ministry in the besieged Palestinian enclave announced yesterday.
“The toll of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip reached 15,523 martyrs” since Oct. 7, ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qedra said in a news conference.
The number of wounded through the same period has risen to 41,316, Al-Qedra added.
On the number of killed healthcare personnel, al-Qedra confirmed that total at 281, with hundreds injured. Additionally, 56 ambulances and the same number of health facilities have been completely destroyed, while 20 hospitals are out of service, along with 46 primary care centers, he added.
Al-Qedra noted that Israeli forces arrested four paramedics on Saturday despite their prior coordination, as they were heading northward from Khan Yunis in the south to evacuate the wounded.
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip said they were running out of places to go in the sealed-off territory that borders Israel and Egypt. Many of its 2.3 million people are crammed in the south after Israel ordered civilians to leave the north in the early days of the war, which was sparked by the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and other militants that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel.
The United Nations estimates that 1.8 million Gazans have been displaced.
Heavy bombardment was reported overnight into Sunday around Khan Younis and the southern city of Rafah, as well as parts of the north that had been the focus of Israel’s shattering air and ground offensive. Juliette Toma, director of communications at the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, said nearly 958,000 displaced people were in 99 United Nations facilities in the southern Gaza Strip.
UN human rights chief Volker Türk urged an end to the war, saying civilian suffering was “too much to bear”.
Hopes for another temporary truce were fading. A weeklong cease-fire that expired Friday facilitated the release of dozens of the around 240 Gaza-held Israeli and foreign hostages in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. But Israel has called its negotiators home.
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The United States, Israel’s closest ally, has urged Israel to avoid significant new mass displacement and do more to protect civilians. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris also told Egypt’s president that “under no circumstances” would the U.S. permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, an ongoing siege of Gaza or the redrawing of its borders.
On the ground in Gaza, there was frustration and mourning. Outside a Gaza City hospital, a dust-covered boy named Saaed Khalid Shehta dropped to his knees beside the bloodied body of his little brother Mohammad, one of several bodies laid out after people said their street was hit by airstrikes. He kissed him.
An American warship and multiple commercial ships came under attack in the Red Sea, the Pentagon said yesterday.
The move potentially marks a major escalation in a series of maritime attacks in the Middle East linked to the Israel-Hamas war.
The Pentagon said: “We’re aware of reports regarding attacks on the USS Carney and commercial vessels in the Red Sea and will provide information as it becomes available.”
The Carney is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and it remained unclear what damage, if any, the vessels sustained in the attacks.
The Pentagon did not identify where it believed the fire came from. However, Houthi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree claimed the attacks, saying the first vessel was hit by a missile and the second by a drone while in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.
He described the ships as allegedly ignoring warnings from Houthi officials prior to the attack.
