An Israeli attack kills twelve people, mostly children. The army has declared the Gaza area a safe zone

(Mohammed Dahman/Associated Press)

An Israeli attack kills twelve people, mostly children. The army has declared the Gaza area a safe zone

Israel-Hamas

NAJIB JOBAIN and JACK JEFFFERY

January 4, 2024

An Israeli attack on Thursday leveled a house in an area of ​​southern Gaza that the army had declared a safe zone, while Israeli forces continued their attack in the nearby town of Khan Yunis. Palestinian hospital officials said the blast killed at least 12 people, almost all of them children.

Israel’s attacks focused on Khan Yunis, where the army said Thursday it has uncovered tunnels used by Hamas and fought fighters from the militant group that attacked southern Israel on Oct. 1. 7.

Israel has pledged to continue its offensive in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed. Now an apparent Israeli attack that killed a top Hamas leader in Beirut has sparked new fears that the conflict could spread to other parts of the region.

The killing of Sameh Arouri prompted warnings of retaliation by Hamas ally, the Lebanese Hezbollah militia. But there was no immediate escalation in the daily exchange of rocket fire and grenades between Hezbollah and the Israeli army across the two countries’ borders.

After nearly three months, Israeli bombing and ground attacks in Gaza have killed more than 22,400 people, more than two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-held territory. The ministry’s count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

The attacks have driven more than 85% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents from their homes. The Israeli attack leveled much of northern Gaza, and ground attacks in the south pushed most of the population into smaller parts of the territory. With attacks happening all over Gaza, Palestinians say nowhere is safe.

A house was hit on Thursday in Mawasi, a small rural strip on Gaza’s southern coast, where the Israeli army has said Palestinians must flee to escape the fighting zone. The blast killed a man and his wife, seven of their children and three other children aged 5 to 14, according to a list of the dead that arrived at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis.

There was no immediate response from the Israeli army.

Israeli troops entered Khan Yunis in early December and have been fighting Hamas militants there for weeks. The army said Thursday that its forces had uncovered a large tunnel hundreds of meters long with an entrance in a field next to a mosque.

Images released by the military showed buildings destroyed where fighters were believed to have fired on troops hiding or holding Hamas infrastructure. Military officials did not elaborate.

Israel blames Hamas for the high civilian death toll, saying it operates in residential areas and has an extensive tunnel network under civilian sites.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel aims for a clear victory over Hamas, which has ruled the area since 2007. An attack from Gaza on southern Israel killed about 1,200 people and took about 240 others hostage.

Israel appears to be far from achieving its goals of crushing Hamas and returning the estimated 129 hostages still held by the group. Gallant said several thousand Hamas fighters are in northern Gaza, where Israeli forces have been battling militants for more than two months and where entire neighborhoods have been razed.

UN spokesperson Florencia Soto Nio said officials from the UN humanitarian agency and the World Health Organization on Thursday visited Al Amal Hospital in Khan Yunis, which was reportedly hit by a deadly attack, and witnessed extensive damage.

The UN and its humanitarian partners have been unable to deliver aid to northern Gaza for three days, Soto Nio said.

The humanitarian agency has warned that Gaza is “a public health disaster in the making,” she said.

Since Oct. As of Oct. 7, more than 400,000 cases of infectious diseases have been reported, Soto Nio said, including about 180,000 people with upper respiratory infections and more than 136,000 cases of diarrhea, half of which are in children under 5 years old.

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