A building sheltering hundreds of displaced people in the city of Khan Younis was hit on Wednesday, according to the UN, as Israeli forces ramped up attacks on southern Gaza, forcing streams of Palestinians to flee the neighborhood. <\/p>\n
\u201cBuildings ablaze and mass casualties. Safe access to and from the center has been denied for two days. People are trapped,\u201d Thomas White, the director of UNRWA Affairs, said on X. <\/p>\n
At least nine people were killed and another 75 injured, White said, adding that a team from his agency and the World Health Organization were trying to reach the site. He said the building shelters 800 people and had been hit by Israeli tank fire. <\/p>\n
However, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that it has \u201ccurrently\u201d ruled out that the incident was \u201cthe result of an aerial or artillery strike by the IDF.\u201d <\/p>\n
It said a \u201cthorough review of the operations of the forces in the vicinity is underway,\u201d adding that it is \u201cexamining the possibility that the strike was a result of Hamas fire.\u201d <\/p>\n
In the past week, the IDF has intensified its offensive on Khan Younis, where medical facilities sheltering displaced civilians and health workers have been battered. The IDF maintains there are Hamas militants located in hospitals in the area. Relief agencies say the siege has blocked critical humanitarian operations. <\/p>\n
The Israeli military launched its campaign in Gaza with the stated aim of eliminating Hamas, after more than 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 kidnapped during the militant group\u2019s October 7 attacks on Israel, according to Israeli authorities. <\/p>\n
Since then its bombardment and besiegement of the enclave has decimated swathes of the territory, diminishing food, fuel and water supplies and exposing more than 2.2 million civilians to starvation, dehydration and disease. <\/p>\n
On Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres warned that Palestinians in Gaza \u201cface inhumane, squalid conditions, struggling to simply make it through another day without proper shelter, heating, sanitary facilities, food and drinkable water.\u201d <\/p>\n
Palestinian health officials and paramedics have also reported Israeli tanks and attack drones firing at people trying to flee the vicinity of the Amal and Nasser hospitals in Khan Younis. <\/p>\n
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said Israeli forces have surrounded the Nasser Medical Complex,\u00a0cutting off crucial medical, food, and fuel supplies. <\/p>\n
\u201cHundreds of patients with infections and pregnant women are facing serious complications,\u201d health ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qudra said. <\/p>\n
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said Israeli forces are \u201csurrounding\u201d their headquarters and the Al-Amal Hospital and have enforced \u201crestrictions on movement around both the building and the hospital\u201d. <\/p>\n
Six people were killed in attacks on Khan Younis on Wednesday, PRCS added, three of which had been \u201ctargeted\u201d at the entrance of their headquarters. <\/p>\n
Israeli tanks also surrounded the compound of the Al-Aqsa University in the city where thousands have been sheltering, Palestinian state news agency WAFA said. It said civilians had been targeted elsewhere in southern Gaza in the last 24 hours. <\/p>\n
Four civilians, including a child, were killed in an Israeli attack on a \u201crest stop\u201d in the coastal town of Al-Mawasi, and a man fleeing fighting in Khan Younis was struck in his car, reported WAFA. <\/p>\n
Israeli forces conducted \u201cnumerous intense air raids, described as \u2018fire belts\u2019 to accompany its ground incursion, which has extended all the way to the west of Khan Younis,\u201d a Geneva-based NGO advocating for human rights in the region, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, said on Wednesday <\/p>\n
Euro-Med HR reported that shelters housing \u201ctens of thousands\u201d of displaced people in the western part of Khan Younis, and in Al-Mawasi, are under siege by the Israeli military. <\/p>\n
The IDF said they continue to operate in Khan Younis, where they are pursuing \u201cmilitary targets, outposts, infrastructure and command and control centers,\u201d and said the operation there will continue for \u201cseveral days.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe brigade combat team is located around the [Khan Younis] camp, in the western part, and have begun to operate within it. \u00a0The manoeuvre will continue against military targets that are in the area, outposts, infrastructure, and command and control centers,\u201d the IDF said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere is an area with shelters, there are several hospitals, several sensitive sites. We have seen terrorists use these sites. Almost a week ago we saw a launch from the Nasser Hospital, there are terrorists located in these hospitals. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis operation will continue for several days until we maximize the achievements: dismantling Hamas\u2019 military framework and Hamas strongholds, which we are required to thoroughly dismantle,\u201d added the IDF. <\/p>\n
As the IDF surrounded the city of Khan Younis, thousands of Palestinians moved south towards Rafah, near the border with Egypt, where 1.3 million people have been displaced, according to the UN. <\/p>\n
The video shows cars, trucks, and tractors transporting families and their essential belongings, such as blankets, mattresses and food. Many, however, were walking. <\/p>\n
Hisham Sayegh\u00a0said he saw four people killed, which forced him to leave with his family as shelling in the area intensifies. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are dead people on the ground. We left them behind. There are people killed inside the houses,\u201d Sayegh said. \u201cWe were expecting to die at any minute.\u201d <\/p>\n
Jamal al Rozzi, an aid worker displaced near Khan Younis, said he was forced to flee to Rafah on Wednesday after heavy bombardment in the area. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to evacuate again \u2026 because the area where we were was under bombardment,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was heavy bombardment and we were hardly safe there.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
A building sheltering hundreds of displaced people in the city of Khan Younis was hit on Wednesday, according to the UN, as Israeli forces ramped up attacks on southern Gaza, forcing streams of Palestinians to flee the neighborhood. \u201cBuildings ablaze and mass casualties. Safe access to and from the center has been denied for two <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":14547,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14546","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}