Israeli troops fought fierce battles with Hamas in south Gaza in the heart of the city of Khan Younis, forcing Palestinian civilians, many already displaced from the north, to search for refuge elsewhere with their options dwindling.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces were encircling the Khan Younis house of the enclave’s Hamas leader Yahya Al-Sinwar. “His house may not be his fortress and he can escape but it’s only a matter of time before we get him,” Netanyahu said in a recorded video statement.
Residents in Khan Younis said Israeli tanks had neared Sinwar’s home but it was not known whether he or any of his family were there. Israel has said it believes many Hamas leaders and fighters are holed up in underground tunnels.
As Israel expanded a ground offensive into southern Gaza after largely taking control of the northern half, Palestinian medics said hospitals were overflowing with dead and wounded, many of them women and children, and supplies were running out.
Nine Palestinians were killed and several others injured in an Israeli bombardment of a house in Rafah, city in Gaza’s far south near the border with Egypt, according to Palestinian medical sources.
Hundreds of thousands of people made homeless in the north were desperately seeking shelter in the diminishing number of places in the south designated as safe areas by Israel.
Gazans say there are no truly safe places left, with remaining towns and shelters swamped by displaced people, and Israel bombing areas where it is telling people to go.
Israel says it does its utmost to avoid civilian casualties but that Hamas combatants use civilian residential buildings for cover. Hamas denies this.
In Geneva, the UN human rights chief said the situation was “apocalyptic” with the risk that serious rights violations were being committed by both sides. The United Nations said it was impossible to deliver emergency aid through Gaza’s southern Rafah border crossing from Egypt.
Armoured Israeli forces have thrust southward and surrounded Khan Younis since the collapse of a seven-day truce on December 1.
Israel said its forces had struck hundreds of targets, including a militant cell near a school in the north. Hamas’ armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, said combat was fierce.
Residents said Israeli bombing intensified overnight, killing and wounding civilians, and that tanks were battling Palestinian militants north and east of Khan Younis.
Some Palestinians described lucky escapes after their homes were destroyed in an overnight air strike on the al-Amal neighbourhood of Khan Younis.
“I swear we don’t even know how we made it out alive,” said Hamdi Tanira, describing an attack on a house where he said he and about 30 others were sleeping, including 20 children.
Another survivor Amal Mehdi said: “All of a sudden, the bombardment hit us, you wouldn’t know where it came from, it was a miracle that we were pulled from under the rubble.”Reuters
