KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) – Israel's ground offensive expanded to all parts of the Gaza Strip, its army said Sunday, as it ordered more evacuations and vowed to hit southern Gaza with “no less force” than the struggle that has reduced large amounts. parts of north of Gaza to a lunar landscape.
Heavy shelling followed the evacuation orders and Palestinians in the closed territory bordering Israel and Egypt said they were running out of places to go.
Many of Gaza's 2.3 million people fled south after Israel ordered civilians to leave the north in the early days of the war, which was sparked by October 7 Attack led by Hamas in Israel that killed about 1,200, mostly civilians.
In the darkness, gunfire and shelling could be heard in the central city of Deir al-Balah as flares lit up the sky. Israeli drones sounded in Gaza's second largest city, Khan Younis. UN human rights chief Volker Türk called for an end to the war, saying civilian suffering was “too much to bear”.
Residents said the army dropped leaflets calling Khan Younis “a dangerous combat zone” and ordering them to move to the border town of Rafah or a coastal area to the southwest.
Halima Abdel-Rahman, a widow and mother of four, said she has stopped heeding those orders. He fled his home in October to an area outside Khan Younis, where he is staying with relatives.
“The occupation tells you to go to this area, then they bomb it,” he said by phone. “The reality is that no place is safe in Gaza. They kill people in the north. They kill people in the south.”
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll in the territory since October 7 has exceeded 15,500, with more than 41,000 injured. The ministry does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths, but said 70 percent of the dead were women and children.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Health said that hundreds had been killed or injured since a week-long ceasefire ended on Friday. “Most of the victims are still under the rubble,” Ashraf al-Qidra said.
Ballistic missiles fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels struck three commercial ships on Sunday in the Red Sea, the latest in a series of naval attacks in the Middle East linked to the war. The Iran-backed Houthis claimed two of the attacks. A US warship also shot down three drones in self-defense during the hours-long assault, the US military said.
Hopes of another temporary truce in Gaza faded as Israel summoned its negotiators home, with senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan saying talks on freeing more hostages must be linked to a permanent ceasefire.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the war will continue until “all its objectives” are achieved. One is to remove Hamas from power in Gaza.
The previous ceasefire facilitated the release of 105 of the approximately 240 Israeli and foreign hostages taken to Gaza during the October 7 attack, in exchange for 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Most of those released by both sides were women and children.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told NBC's “Meet the Press” that the US was working “very hard” to resume negotiations.
The United States, Israel's closest ally, has urged Israel to avoid further significant mass displacement and to do more to protect civilians. US Vice President Kamala Harris told the Egyptian president that “under no circumstances” would the US allow the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, an ongoing siege of Gaza or the redrawing of its borders.
As Harris flew from Dubai and an appearance at the UN climate conference back to Washington, he spoke by phone with Israeli President Isaac Herzog. They discussed the situation in the West Bank, and Harris reiterated U.S. concerns about steps being taken that could increase tensions, including violence by extremist settlers, according to a summary provided by Harris' office.
Harris also spoke by phone during the flight to Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority, and reiterated U.S. support for the Palestinian people's right to security, dignity and self-determination, according to the summary.
In the land of Gaza, there was fear and grief. Outside a hospital in Gaza City, a dust-covered boy named Saaed Khalid Shehta fell to his knees next to the bloodied body of his younger brother Mohammad, one of several bodies disposed of after people said the his street was hit by airstrikes. He kissed him.
“You'll bury me with him!” cried the boy. A health worker at Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital said more than 15 children died.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets and helicopters struck targets in Gaza, including “tunnels, command centers and weapons storage facilities.” He acknowledged “extensive airstrikes in the Khan Younis area.”
The bodies of 31 people killed in the shelling of central Gaza were taken to Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, said Omar al-Darawi, an administrative employee at the hospital. A woman cried, cradling the body of a child. Another was carrying the body of a baby. Hospital workers later reported 11 more dead after another airstrike. Among the bloody survivors was a child carried on a mattress.
Outside a hospital morgue in Khan Younis, resident Samy al-Najeila carried the body of a child. He said that his children had been preparing to evacuate their home, “but the occupation did not give us time. The three-storey building was completely destroyed, the whole block was completely destroyed.” He said six of the bodies were his family members.
“Five people are still under the rubble,” he said. “God help us.”
In a video from the same al-Nasser hospital plenum, UNICEF spokesman James Elder said: “I feel like I'm almost failing in my ability to convey the endless killing of children here.”
Israel says it is not targeting civilians and has taken measures to protect them, including its evacuation orders. In addition to leaflets, the military has used phone calls and radio and television broadcasts to urge people to move from specific areas.
Israel says it is targeting Hamas operatives and blames civilian casualties on the militants, accusing them of operating in residential neighborhoods. He claims to have killed thousands of militants, without providing evidence. Israel says at least 78 of its soldiers have been killed.
The expansion of the offensive is likely to further complicate humanitarian aid in Gaza. Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority for Crossings, said 100 aid trucks entered on Sunday, but UN agencies have said 500 trucks entered on average a day before the war.
The United Nations estimates that 1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced. Nearly 958,000 of them are packed into crowded UN facilities in the south, said Juliette Toma, director of communications for the UN agency for Palestine refugees.
Elsewhere in the region, Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group said it struck Israeli positions near the tense border between Lebanon and Israel. Eight soldiers and three civilians were wounded by Hezbollah fire in the Beit Hillel area, Army Radio reported. The military said its artillery hit sources of fire in Lebanon and its fighter jets hit other Hezbollah targets.
Iraqi militants with the Iran-backed umbrella group, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, said they hit the US military base at Kharab al-Jir in Syria with rockets. A US military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said the rockets hit the Rumalyn landing zone in Syria, but there were no reports of casualties or damage.
Later Sunday, officials from Iran-backed militias in Iraq said five militia members were killed in an airstrike attributed to the US near Kirkuk. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. A US official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a yet-to-be-publicized military operation said the US had carried out a “self-defense strike” near Kirkuk targeting a of drone staging.
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Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Samy Magdy in Cairo; Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad; Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece; Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel; and Lolita Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.
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