The health authorities in the Gaza Strip have counted at least 70 dead and more than 200 wounded on Tuesday night, after Israel attacked the town of Khan Younis in the southern part of the area on Monday.
This is written by the AFP news agency.
Israel’s defense force, the IDF, announced on Monday that it planned to “operate by force” in an area.
The said area included, among other things, the humanitarian zone al-Mawasi, which includes Khan Younis, among others. The announcement sent thousands of Palestinians fleeing.
According to the IDF, the goal was to put an end to the rocket attacks that the armed group Hamas, according to Israel, sends from Khan Younis.
The city has already been the subject of fierce clashes between Hamas and the Israeli army in the current war between the two.
Many Palestinians have fled to Khan Younis and other areas in the southern part of the Gaza Strip as a result of Israel’s operations in the north.
Earlier in July, at least 90 were killed in an attack on a tent camp in Khan Younis, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.
The tent camp in al-Mawasi has also been hit by attacks several times. Earlier this month, it was announced that at least 71 people had lost their lives in an attack.
According to Israel, the attack occurred in an attempt to get rid of the commander-in-chief of Hamas’s military branch, the al-Qassem Brigades, Mohammed Deif.
He has been named as one of the masterminds behind the Palestinian movement’s surprise attack on Israel on October 7 last year.
The attack killed around 1,200 people and reignited the long-running conflict.
Hamas and allied groups took about 250 hostages. 116 remain in Gaza, including 42 who, according to the army, have died.
Since Israel launched a ground offensive in Gaza on October 27, Israeli forces have been moving further south with the aim of defeating Hamas units. However, fighting has also flared up again in the north.
About 39,980 people – also mostly civilians – have died during Israel’s offensive in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry.
/ritzau/
Source: www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk
