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Israel launches another offensive in Gaza’s south amid push for cease-fire

KHAN YUNIS, GAZA - APRIL 13: A man carries items on his back as people remove possessions from their homes following Israeli airstrikes on April 13, 2024 in Khan Younis, Gaza. The Israeli military has scaled back ground troops in the southern Gaza Strip, leaving only one brigade. However Israeli officials have vowed to launch a ground invasion of Rafah at a later date.(Photo by Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images) (Ahmad Hasaballah)
By Victoria Kim, Johnatan Reiss and Aaron Boxerman New York Times

Israel’s military said early Friday that it had launched another offensive in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, in an attack involving ground troops, fighter jets, helicopter gunships and paratroopers, after ordering thousands of Palestinians to flee the area.

The attack was the latest in which Israeli forces have returned to devastated cities and neighborhoods where they fought Hamas for months, saying that militants had managed to regroup there. Israel is still struggling to achieve one of its main war aims: wiping out Hamas, which planned and led the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel that set off the war in Gaza.

Hours earlier, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said he would send negotiators next week to what President Joe Biden and the leaders of Egypt and Qatar said would be the presentation of a “final” cease-fire proposal.

“The time has come” for an agreement, the leaders said in a joint statement, the latest push for peace talks amid concerns that the conflict will engulf more of the region.

Before the attack, the Israeli military ordered thousands of Palestinians to leave the area, again displacing people who have repeatedly moved across the 140-square-mile territory in search of elusive safety, with no end to the war in sight.

Photos and videos from Gaza on Thursday showed streams of people trudging through piles of rubble, carrying bedding and bags, to leave the evacuation areas in anticipation of the attack.

The Israeli military said its coordinated attack had struck “more than 30 terrorist targets” and that it had killed several militants. Israel said it had ordered the evacuation to protect the safety of civilians living in the areas, from which some rockets had been fired at Israeli territory.

It is at least the third time Israeli soldiers have launched a major operation around Khan Younis. The Israeli military withdrew in April after fighting there for about four months, destroying large swaths of the city. Some residents went home and began laboriously clearing rubble from the streets – only to flee again in the face of the new operations.

Elsewhere in Gaza, at least 16 people were killed in airstrikes Thursday on two school complexes in the northern part of the enclave. Schools in Gaza have been closed since the war began 10 months ago, but displaced people have crowded into the buildings, seeking safety.

Israel’s military said the strikes had been intended to destroy Hamas “command-and-control centers” inside the compounds and that measures had been taken to protect civilians. Israeli officials have blamed Hamas for hiding among displaced people, while rights groups have said Israel must do more to protect civilians.

Earlier in the week, the U.N. Human Rights Office expressed “horror” over what it called an “escalating pattern” of attacks in the past month on schools turned into shelters.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.