By MATHEW MPOKE BIGG
Israel’s military said Tuesday that it was pushing ahead with operations against Hamas in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, using tanks and fighter jets to strike what it said were weapons storage facilities and observation posts, a day after aid workers reported that dozens of people had been killed and hundreds of others wounded in the area.
The military, which is seeking to dismantle Hamas, invaded Khan Younis in December, and by spring, it said that it had defeated the armed group’s forces in the city. That its troops have returned there this week suggests that Israel’s commanders perceive that Hamas had not been fully defeated or has regrouped.
The military said Tuesday that it was again “eliminating terrorists in tank and aerial strikes.” It also said that a projectile fired by Hamas toward Israel from the area of Maghazi in central Gaza “fell and hit a school in the area of Nuseirat,” a town in the same part of the enclave. The military did not say whether there were casualties. It was not immediately possible to confirm the claim, and the main U.N. agency that aids Palestinians, UNRWA, said that it had no information about the reported incident.
The Israeli military had ordered residents to evacuate parts of Khan Younis on Monday, and video and photos showed terrified people, many on foot, running for safety. More than 150,000 people had fled by late Monday afternoon, according to UNRWA, which cited information from a charity, Alwaleed Philanthropies.
Israel had established what it described as a humanitarian zone just west of the city around the coastal village of Muwasi and encouraged Palestinians in Gaza to go there for safety. But Monday, the military said that it had shrunk the area of that zone, asking people, many of whom had set up makeshift shelters, to leave again because it said Hamas fighters had been launching rockets from the area.
The decision was made because of “intelligence indicating that terrorists were operating and firing rockets in these areas, as well as efforts by Hamas to reassemble its forces there,” the military said in a statement.
The claim could not be independently confirmed, but Hamas has used urban areas in Gaza to conceal its operations, running tunnels under neighborhoods and holding hostages in city centers. The group’s members, who are from Gaza, have long lived among the civilian population.
People in Gaza “search for safety to no avail because no place is safe,” said Juliette Touma, the communications director of UNRWA, who also said that people had been forced to move once a month.
The situation was particularly dire at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. The Gaza Health Ministry said Monday that 70 bodies had been brought there and that 200 others had been wounded. The figures could not be confirmed independently, and they do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Javid Abdelmoneim, the medical team leader for Doctors Without Borders at the hospital, said in an impassioned video posted on social media Tuesday that staff members were at a breaking point because of the overwhelming medical needs, not least patients with burns. Stocks of blood were at critically low levels, he said, adding that he feared the hospital would be forced to close entirely.
コメント