GAZA STRIP: Israel launched new attacks in southern Gaza on Tuesday, forcing hundreds of Palestinians to flee after the army once again ordered the evacuation of some densely populated areas.
According to a medical source and the Palestinian Red Crescent, witnesses reported multiple attacks in and around the city of Khan Younis, in which eight people were killed and more than 30 injured.
The bombing came after a rare rocket attack claimed by the militant group Islamic Jihad, which fights alongside Hamas.
The rockets targeted Israeli communities near the Gaza border and were fired in retaliation for Israeli “crimes… against our Palestinian people,” said the Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad.
The Israeli military reported “identifying 20 projectiles flying from the Khan Yunis area,” most of which were intercepted. No casualties were reported and it said artillery “hit fire sources.”
An order was issued on Monday to evacuate Al-Qarara, Bani Suhaila and other towns in Rafah and Khan Younis, almost two months after the initial order to evacuate Rafah ahead of the ground offensive.
Prior to the Israeli ground invasion of Rafah, more than a million people were displaced to Gaza’s southernmost city.
“Fear and extreme anxiety gripped people after the evacuation order was issued,” said Ahmad Najjar, a resident of Bani Suhaila. “There has been a large displacement of residents.”
Other parts of the Gaza Strip have suffered the effects of sustained fighting in the nearly nine months since the devastating conflict began.
Witnesses and the civil defense agency reported Israeli airstrikes on southern Rafah and the central Nuseirat refugee camp.
In the Shujaiya district of Gaza City, where fighting continued for a fifth day on Monday, witnesses reported intense shelling by Israeli tanks.
An AFP correspondent said Israeli helicopters had struck houses in the town of Shujaiya, while Hamas’s armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, said it was continuing fighting in Shujaiya and Rafah.
The Israeli military said its troops “eliminated a number of terrorists” in airstrikes in Shujaiya, where “around 20” militants were also killed in the raids.
The military also reported the death of a soldier in the southern Gaza Strip, bringing the total number of casualties in the ground offensive to 317.
Netanyahu, who recently declared that the “intense phase” of the war was coming to an end, said on Sunday that troops “are operating in Rafah, Shujaiya and everywhere in the Gaza Strip.”
“It’s a difficult fight that takes place above ground… and underground” in the tunnels.
The war began with an Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli data.
The militants also took 251 hostages, of whom 116 are still in the Gaza Strip, including 42 who the army says are dead.
In the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, at least 37,900 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Israel’s retaliatory offensive, according to health ministry data.
Months of spotty talks on a ceasefire and hostage release have yielded little progress. Hamas said Saturday there was “nothing new” in the revised plan presented by U.S. mediators.
Israeli authorities released Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, and dozens of other prisoners who were returned to Gaza for treatment on Monday, angering Netanyahu.
Subsequent Israeli airstrikes reduced much of Al-Shifa, the largest medical complex in the territory, to rubble.
Israel has accused Hamas of using Al-Shifa Hospital and other hospitals in the Gaza Strip as a cover for military operations, a claim that the militants have rejected.
Abu Salmiya, speaking after his release, said he had been held in detention since November and subjected to “severe torture.”
“Prisoners were subjected to physical and mental humiliation” and “several prisoners died in interrogation centers and were deprived of food and medicine,” he said.
Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency said the decision to release them was made in conjunction with the Israeli army “to free up space in detention centers.”
The agency said it “opposes the release of terrorists” who were involved in attacks on Israeli civilians, “which is why it was decided to release some Gazan prisoners who pose less of a threat.”
Netanyahu, however, said he had ordered the agency to conduct an investigation into the release and provide him with the results by Tuesday.
“The release of hospital director Shifa is a grave mistake and a moral failure. This man, on whose responsibility the kidnappers were murdered and held, belongs in prison,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
Abu Salmiya claims no charges were ever brought against him.
The United Nations and aid agencies have expressed concern about the drastic humanitarian crisis and threat of famine that the war and siege of Gaza have brought to its 2.4 million inhabitants.
The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said Israeli authorities had enabled less than half of the 115 planned humanitarian aid missions to the northern Gaza Strip in June.
In the Deir Al-Balah displacement camp in the Gaza Strip, pharmacist Sami Hamid said skin infections were increasing, especially among children, “due to the heat and lack of clean water.”
“The number of skin infections, especially scabies and chickenpox, has increased,” as has the number of hepatitis cases, likely linked to the untreated sewage flowing near the tents, Hamid said.
