Gaza Conflict: Scores killed as Israel attacks Hamas targets in Khan Younis

In what they described as the most violent day of fighting in five weeks of ground operations against Hamas militants, Israeli forces assaulted the main city of Gaza in the south on Tuesday. Hospitals were overwhelmed with the number of Palestinians who died and were injured. In what seemed to be the largest ground attack on Gaza since a ceasefire with Hamas broke down last week, Israel announced that its forces, supported by jets, had entered the centre of Khan Younis. “We are in the most intense day since the beginning of the ground operation,” the commander of the Israeli military’s Southern Command, General Yaron Finkelman, said in Jerusalem. He stated that Israeli soldiers were also engaged in combat in Shuja’iyya, which is east of Gaza City, and in Jabalia, a sizable urban camp and Hamas bastion in northern Gaza adjacent to Gaza City. “We are in the heart of Jabalia, in the heart of Shuja’iyya, and now also in the heart of Khan Younis,” he said. Residents of Khan Younis reported that Israeli troops and tanks had advanced past the border fence that encloses the coastal Gaza Strip and were encroaching on the city from the east. Israeli forces dropped more leaflets on Tuesday instructing the locals to stay inside shelters during the attack, following days of orders for them to leave the region. “For your safety, stay in the shelters and the hospitals where you are. Don’t get out. Going out is dangerous. You have been warned,” said the leaflets, addressed to residents of six districts amounting to around a quarter of Khan Younis. Israel initiated the campaign as payback for an October 7 raid by Hamas terrorists who, according to Israel’s count, rampaged through Israeli cities, murdering 1,200 people and taking 240 prisoners. More than 15,900 Palestinians have been officially confirmed killed by Israeli air power, strikes, and other acts, according to Gaza health officials. Thousands more are still missing, possibly buried under debris. Eighty percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million population have been forced to evacuate southward by Israeli bombardments. Three times as many people as normal are currently being housed in crowded southern districts. (With agency inputs)