Israeli Forces Strike in Humanitarian Zone; Scores Reported Killed

[Pelican Press 0]

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******** Forces Strike in Humanitarian Zone; Scores Reported *******

******* renewed its military ******** in parts of Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Monday, in a ground and air operation that local health officials said ******* and wounded scores of people, adding to the misery of a city deeply scarred after nine months of war.

The ******** military said in a statement that it had launched the operation because intelligence indicated that ************ militants had used the eastern part of the city — part of an area previously designated as a humanitarian, or “safe” zone — to ***** rockets toward ******* and that ****** was attempting to regroup there. Earlier on Monday, the ******** military had warned people in that area to leave, and photographs showed thousands fleeing.

The Gazan health ministry said 70 bodies were brought to Nasser Hospital, and at least 200 other people had been wounded, adding that others were almost certainly ******* under rubble. The Palestine Red Crescent said its teams in the area had dealt with at least 12 people who had been ******* and 50 wounded.

*******’s new evacuation area was previously part of its safe zone.

Evacuation

zone declared

Monday

Evacuation zone

declared since May

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*******’s new evacuation area was previously part of its safe zone.

Evacuation

zone declared

Monday

Evacuation zone

declared since

early May

Dr. Mohammed Saqer, the director general of nursing at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, said hundreds of injured men, women, children and older people had streamed into the hospital, which lacked mattresses, blankets, syringes and other essentials.

“The situation is appalling,” Dr. Saqer said in an interview, adding that some injuries had necessitated amputations and that some people had sustained serious burns.

Palestinians carrying bodies outside Nasser Hospital after ******** strikes in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on Monday.Credit…Bashar Taleb/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The ******** military said on Monday that it had ordered the evacuation of eastern Khan Younis because it was “about to forcefully operate against” ****** in the area. Residents were told to seek temporary shelter closer to the coast in an area that ******* has designated as a humanitarian zone.

The military had previously ordered an evacuation of the city but not everyone left, aid workers and residents said, and on Monday the military said that “remaining residents” of eastern neighborhoods of the city should go to the “adjusted Humanitarian Area in Al-Mawasi.”

“The calls for the temporary evacuation are being communicated to residents through SMS messages, phone calls and media broadcasts in Arabic,” the military said.

The military said it would “continue to act against the ****** ********** organization, which uses the Gazan civilians as a human shield for its ********** activities and infrastructure.”

It was not possible to determine the sequence of Monday’s events in Khan Younis and whether the evacuation orders preceded the strikes. Photographs showed thousands of people attempting to flee the area apparently in *******, some on donkey carts and others on foot.

Almost all of Gaza’s 2.2 million people have been forced to flee their homes and many have relocated repeatedly since Oct. 7, when ****** led an ******* on ******* that ******* around 1,200 people and triggered the war.

Palestinians heading west from an area in eastern Khan Younis on Monday.Credit…Bashar Taleb/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Since then, more than 39,000 people have been ******* in Gaza and nearly 90,000 others have been injured, according to ************ health authorities. The ministry’s figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but list the bodies of men, women, children and the elderly it has identified as distinct categories.

Louise Wateridge, a spokeswoman with the main U.N. agency for the Palestinians, UNRWA, said that conditions in zone were “very dire,” with a lack of shelter, water, food, medicine and sanitation, and that many civilians — large numbers of whom had moved repeatedly from one part of Gaza to another to seek safety — were no longer sure where to go.

Khan Younis was the site of a major ******** military ground operation in the spring aimed at dislodging ******’s military wing and destroying tunnels that ******* said ****** had built. At that time, ******* also told residents to flee, and many went south to the city of Rafah on Gaza’s border with Egypt. Residents who returned to Khan Younis in April said that parts of the city had been so badly damaged as to be almost unrecognizable.

In a separate incident on Sunday, Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of UNRWA, said that ******** forces shot at a four-car U.N. convoy heading

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, hitting one car five times, but causing no casualties.

Ms. Wateridge, who was in the vehicle that was hit, said that bullets had pierced the vehicle while it was stationary at a holding point in front of the Wadi Gaza checkpoint. She described the incident as terrifying and said she was fortunate to have been sitting in the front passenger seat away from where the bullets penetrated the car.

The ******** military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

— Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Iyad Abuheweila

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