Battles in Khan Younis, US blocks Gaza ceasefire call
Bassam Masoud and Nidal al-Mughrabi |
Israel has ordered residents out of the centre of Gaza’s main southern city Khan Younis and pounded the length of the enclave overnight, after the United States wielded its United Nations Security Council veto to shield its ally from a demand for a ceasefire.
Since a truce with Hamas in the two-month-old war collapsed on December 1, Israel has expanded its ground assault into the southern half of the Gaza Strip, pushing into Khan Younis, where residents reported fierce battles. Both sides reported a surge in fighting in the north.
Israel said its campaign was making progress. National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said Israeli forces had killed at least 7000 Hamas militants, without saying how that estimate was reached, and military chief Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi told soldiers “we need to press harder”.
An official toll of deaths in Gaza from the Palestinian health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave exceeded 17,700 on Saturday, with many thousands missing and presumed dead under the rubble. The ministry has said about 40 per cent of deaths were of children under 18.
Israel launched its campaign to annihilate Gaza’s Hamas rulers after their fighters burst into Israeli towns on October 7, killing 1200 people and taking 240 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
Some 137 hostages remain in captivity, and thousands of Israelis rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday to demand their release.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been forced from their homes, often several times. As fighting rages across the territory, residents and UN agencies say there is effectively nowhere safe to go, though Israel disputes this.
Israeli forces say they are limiting civilian casualties by providing maps showing safe areas, and blame Hamas for harming civilians by hiding among them, which the fighters deny. Palestinians say the campaign has turned into a scorched-earth war of vengeance against the entire population of an enclave as densely populated as London.
Israel’s Arabic-language spokesperson on Saturday posted a map on X highlighting six blocks of Khan Younis to evacuate “urgently”.
With food and medical supplies scarce, a senior UN World Food Program official said a new system could bring more aid into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel, but Israel has not yet agreed to open it.
In central Gaza, Israeli tank shelling resumed on Bureij and Maghazi refugee camps, residents said, while Palestinian health officials reported an Israeli air strike in Bureij killed seven Palestinians.
In Khan Younis, the dead and wounded arrived through the night at the overwhelmed Nasser hospital.
Medical workers in northern Gaza, where some of the heaviest fighting is taking place, accused Israel of targeting hospitals and ambulances.
An ambulance worker in Gaza City’s Shejaiya district, asking not to be named for fear of reprisals, told Reuters emergency crews often could not respond to calls and faced Israeli fire.
Mohammed Salha, a manager at al-Awda hospital, said Israeli forces had besieged the hospital for days with tanks, shooting people trying to enter or leave. The health ministry said Israeli forces killed two medical staffers inside Kamal Adwan hospital, also in northern Gaza, on Saturday.
An Israeli military spokesperson said it follows international law and takes “feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm”. The military has said Hamas operates from medical facilities, releasing footage to support that claim. Hamas has denied doing so.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday welcomed Washington’s veto at the United Nations Security Council a day earlier to reject a vote backing a humanitarian ceasefire resolution, saying: “Israel will continue our just war to eliminate Hamas.”
Washington has said it told Israel to do more to protect civilians but still backs Israel’s position that a ceasefire would benefit Hamas. On Saturday, the Biden administration bypassed the US Congress to approve an emergency sale of ammunition to Israel.
Reuters
