Israeli military says it’s advancing in southern Gaza Strip
Israeli forces advanced in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis on Saturday, the military said, the day after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to ensure more aid to and prevent genocide in the enclave but declined to call for an end to its campaign.
Israeli forces were continuing to sweep through Khan Younis, which Israel has called a Hamas stronghold, and had killed “numerous terrorists in various encounters,” the Israeli military said in a statement Saturday.
Palestinians in Gaza have been facing cold weather and increasing hunger as Israel continues its campaign, with many saying there was no safe place to go. Israel has ordered residents sheltering in several densely packed neighborhoods of Khan Younis to flee, and the fighting has reached the vicinity of at least two hospitals – Nasser Hospital, a major medical complex, and Al-Amal Hospital, run by the Palestinian Red Crescent.
On Saturday, Israeli troops bombarded the area near Al-Amal for a sixth consecutive day, the Red Crescent said. Some 7,000 displaced Palestinians are sheltering at the hospital, said Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Red Crescent.
The Israeli military said intelligence showed Hamas militants were operating from within both Al-Amal and Nasser hospitals. In a statement, the Red Crescent denied the allegations against Al-Amal. Gaza health officials have denied Hamas uses hospitals as military assets, disputing accounts presented by Israeli authorities and the testimony of released Israeli hostages.
In a statement, the Israeli military said it had not ordered the hospitals to evacuate, but said that it had opened a corridor for Gaza residents wishing to do so.
The Israeli military has ordered many residents remaining in Khan Younis to head for Mawasi, the coastal area that Israel has called a humanitarian zone. But Palestinian refugees who have fled there say conditions are little better.
Mustafa Abu Taha, who fled Khan Younis for Mawasi this past week, said there was little food and scant shelter against the cold for the thousands of displaced people in the area. Some had eaten spoiled canned goods, making them sick, he said.
“We are waiting for a miracle that will end all our pain and suffering,” Abu Taha added in a text message Saturday. “It is starvation that is intimidating so many.”
Some 2.2 million people – roughly the entire population of Gaza – are facing an “imminent risk of famine,” according to the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Roughly 378,000 are facing a catastrophic level of food insecurity, the highest on a five-point scale used by aid agencies, the U.N. said.
Hundreds of thousands of displaced Gaza residents have also sought refuge in Rafah, on the enclave’s southern border, fearing for their lives in the face of Israel’s ground invasion. Sewage is running in the street amid “conditions of desperation conducive to a complete breakdown in order,” Ajith Sunghay, a U.N. official, said Friday.
“I saw displaced people who had been ordered by Israeli authorities to leave their homes, with no provision for their accommodation, literally living on the street,” said Sunghay, who heads a U.N. office that monitors human rights in the Palestinian territories.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.