Gaza health ministry says dozens killed, after Israel evacuation order
GAZA STRIP – The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on July 22 that an Israeli operation in Khan Yunis killed 70 people and wounded more than 200, after the military warned it would “forcefully operate” in the area.
The military warning affected the eastern Khan Yunis sector of the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone in southern Gaza and sent thousands of Palestinians fleeing.
Israel’s military said it would act to curb rocket fire in the area. Khan Yunis had already seen heavy fighting earlier in 2024.
The latest incident comes nine days after the health ministry said 92 people were killed in a strike on Al-Mawasi, when Israel said it was targeting Hamas’s commander.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and has launched intense military operations in areas of Gaza that it previously had declared free of the militants.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, under pressure to reach a truce and hostage-release deal, arrived in Washington on July 22 to address the US Congress.
Mr Netanyahu will meet US President Joe Biden, who has pushed him to agree to a ceasefire, more than nine months into the Gaza war ignited by the Palestinian militant group’s Oct 7 attacks on Israel.
In late June, Mr Netanyahu said the war “in its intense phase” was about to end.
‘Enough!’
The evacuation order for the Al-Mawasi area came just two months after the military directed Palestinians there for their own safety.
“Due to the Israeli occupation’s attacks and massacres in Khan Yunis governorate from the early hours of this morning until now, 70 people have been martyred and more than 200 wounded,” the Gaza health ministry said.
The Israeli military did not offer comment on the toll when asked by AFP.
But in a statement, the military said its fighter jets and tanks “struck and eliminated terrorists in the area”.
It said forces targeted more than “30 terror infrastructure” sites in Khan Yunis. Israeli warplanes also hit a weapons storage facility, observation posts, tunnel shafts and structures used by Hamas militants, it added.
Facing yet another displacement, Palestinians filled the dusty streets of Khan Yunis with cars, motorbikes, donkey-drawn carts, and on foot, carrying what belongings they could.
Mr Hassan Qudayh said his family fled in “panic”.
“We were happily making breakfast for our children, as we had been safe for a month, only to be stunned by shells, warning leaflets and martyrs in the streets,” he told AFPTV.
He said: “This is the 14th or 15th time we’ve been displaced.
“Enough! We’ve been suffering for 10 months.”