An Israeli strike has killed at least nine people in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, Palestinian health officials said Tuesday, within a day of Israel ordering the evacuation of parts of the city ahead of a likely ground operation.
The overnight strike hit a home near the European Hospital, which is inside the zone that Israel said should be evacuated. After the initial evacuation orders, the military said the facility itself was not included, but its director says most patients and medics have already been relocated.
Sam Rose, the director of planning at the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, said Tuesday that the agency believes some 250,000 people are in the evacuation zone — over 10% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million — including many who have fled earlier fighting. He says another 50,000 people living just outside the zone may also choose to leave because of their proximity to the fighting. Evacuees have been told to seek refuge in a sprawling tent camp along the coast that is already overcrowded and has few basic services.
Israel launched the war in Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250.
Since then, Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 37,900 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and basic goods to Gaza, and people there are now totally dependent on aid. The top U.N. court has concluded there is a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza — a charge Israel strongly denies.
Currently:
— Israel orders Palestinians to flee Khan Younis, signaling a likely new assault on the southern Gaza city.
— Turkey’s president accuses opposition of stoking racism after anti-Syrian rioting erupts.
— Lawsuit accuses Iran, Syria and North Korea of providing support for Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
— Iranian presidential candidates accuse each other of having no plan or experience ahead of runoff.
— Follow news agencies’s coverage of the war in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Here’s the latest:
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says two of its soldiers have been killed and a third soldier was severely wounded fighting in central Gaza. It did not provide details of the battle in a statement issued Tuesday.
The Islamic Jihad militant group said it shelled Israeli supply lines Monday in the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza. The army carved out the corridor, which stretches from the border to the sea, early on in the war to sever northern Gaza from the south.
It was not possible to independently confirm battlefield reports from either side.
The military says 674 soldiers have been killed since the start of the war in Gaza, more than half of them in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that triggered the fighting.
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