Bollywood Fever: Israel re-deployed tanks into the greater Khan Younis area following evacuation orders from some districts, citing renewed militant attacks. Gaza medics reported that at least 70 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire on Monday.
Tank salvoes in Bani Suhaila and other towns on Khan Younis’ eastern side caused these fatalities, with the area also subjected to aerial bombardment. Residents reported that tanks advanced over two kilometers into Bani Suhaila, forcing many to flee under heavy fire.
“It is like doomsday,” one resident, Abu Khaled, told Reuters via chat app. “People are fleeing under fire; many are dead and wounded on the roads.”
The Gaza health ministry confirmed the dead included several women and children, with at least 200 others wounded. The ministry does not differentiate between militants and civilians in its death counts.
The Israeli military stated that the evacuation orders in eastern Khan Younis were based on intelligence indicating militants were launching rockets from these areas and that Hamas was attempting to regroup. “Since this morning, the IAF and IDF artillery forces have struck more than 30 terror infrastructure sites in Khan Younis, including the area from which a projectile was launched toward Nirim in southern Israel earlier today,” the military reported.
Around 400,000 people reside in the targeted areas, with dozens of families evacuating their homes. Palestinian officials noted that residents were not given sufficient time to leave before the strikes began. Some families fled using donkey carts, while others left on foot, carrying their belongings.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported that two of its clinics in eastern Khan Younis were rendered inoperative due to the offensive. At Khan Younis’ Nasser Hospital, people gathered outside the morgue to mourn their deceased relatives.
“We are tired in Gaza; every day our children are martyred,” said Ahmed Sammour, who lost several relatives in the bombings. “No one told us to evacuate. They brought four floors crashing down on civilians.”
In Deir Al-Balah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have sought refuge, an Israeli airstrike hit a tent used by journalists at Al-Aqsa Hospital, killing one journalist and wounding two others. The Hamas-run Gaza government media office stated that this incident raised the number of Palestinian journalists killed in the conflict to 163.
Earlier on Monday, the Israeli military issued new evacuation orders due to renewed militant attacks, including rocket launches from eastern Khan Younis. However, these orders did not cover health institutions. The military adjusted the boundaries of a designated humanitarian zone in Al-Mawasi to keep civilians away from combat areas.
The Gaza Civil Emergency Services reported that Israel downsized the humanitarian-designated areas in southern and central Gaza from 65 square kilometers to 48 square kilometers, where 1.7 million people are sheltering. The Palestinians, along with the United Nations and international relief agencies, have stated there is no safe place left in Gaza.
Health officials at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis urged residents to donate blood due to the large number of casualties. “A family, including children, were all torn to pieces while they were sleeping,” said one man who arrived at the hospital with the bodies.
Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas after militants killed 1,200 people and took over 250 hostages in a cross-border assault on October 7, 2023. According to Gaza health authorities, the Palestinian death toll in Israel’s retaliatory offensive has reached at least 39,006 as of Monday.
A ceasefire effort led by Qatar and Egypt and supported by the U.S. has so far failed due to disagreements over terms between the combatants, who each blame the other for the impasse.
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