Gaza/Jerusalem: In the latest sign that it plans to attack Hamas in southern Gaza after taking control of the north, Israel forces Palestinians in southern Khan Yunis to move west, out of line of fire and closer to humanitarian aid. issued a new warning to do so. .
“We are calling on people to relocate. We know it will not be easy for many of them, but we do not want to see civilians caught in the crossfire,” said a close aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Mark Regev told MSNBC on Friday.
Such a move could exacerbate the dire humanitarian crisis by forcing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled south from Israel’s attack on Gaza City to relocate, along with residents of Khan Yunis.
Khan Yunis has a population of over 400,000 people.
Israel has vowed to eliminate Hamas, the militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, following an October 7 uprising against Israel in which its fighters killed 1,200 people and dragged 240 hostages into the enclave.
Since then, Israel has bombed much of Gaza City into rubble and ordered the depopulation of the entire northern half of the enclave, leaving about two-thirds of the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million Palestinians homeless.
Many of those who have evacuated fear that their displacement will become permanent.
Gaza health authorities on Friday raised the death toll to more than 12,000, 5,000 of whom were children. Although the United Nations considers these figures reliable, they are currently updated infrequently due to difficulties in gathering information.
Israel distributed leaflets in the eastern region of Khan Yunis asking residents to evacuate to evacuation centres, suggesting a military operation in the area was imminent.
Regev said Israeli troops would need to move into the city to dislodge Hamas fighters from their underground tunnels and bunkers, but said there was no such “huge infrastructure” in less built-up areas in the west. Ta.
If they move west, he continued, “I’m sure they won’t have to move again.” “We are asking them to move to areas where there are tents and field hospitals, if possible.”
The western region is close to the Rafah border with Egypt, so humanitarian aid could be delivered “as soon as possible,” he said.
fuel delivery
The war has entered its seventh week and shows no signs of slowing down, despite international calls for a ceasefire or at least a humanitarian pause.
“We have prepared for a long and continuous defense from all directions. The longer the occupation forces remain in Gaza, the greater their continued losses will be,” Hamas’s armed wing reports. Official Abu Ubaydah said in a video statement.
At least five Palestinians were killed and two injured in an Israeli attack on a building in the Balata refugee camp in central Nablus as fresh violence escalates in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society says. emergency services announced early Saturday morning.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Amid warnings that the siege would cause famine and disease, Israel appeared to bow to international pressure on Friday, agreeing to allow fuel trucks into Gaza and offering “no restrictions” on aid requested by the United Nations. ” he promised.
Israel said it would allow two truckloads of fuel per day at Washington’s request to help the United Nations meet basic needs and spoke of plans to expand aid more widely. .
“We will increase the capacity of humanitarian convoys and trucks for as long as it is necessary,” Col. Elad Goren of the Defense Ministry’s COGAT, which coordinates administrative affairs with the Palestinians, said at a press conference.
Israel has promised to grant aid in the past, but UN agencies have warned that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is rapidly deteriorating, including a stark warning from the World Food Program that “famine may be imminent” The statement seemed to signal a change in tone in the wake of the incident. ”
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the White House said it was “pleased” that Israel had agreed to supply fuel, and that supplies should “continue on a regular basis and in greater quantities.”
Israel says it has discovered a large quantity of weapons-laden vehicles and an underground structure known as a Hamas tunnel shaft at Gaza’s largest hospital, al-Shifa, after a two-day search.
The facility is a major target of Israeli ground attacks and the focus of international alarm over the worsening humanitarian crisis.
The military released a video showing a tunnel entrance to an outdoor area of the hospital littered with concrete, wood debris and sand. It appears that the area has been excavated. A bulldozer appeared in the background.
Israel has long claimed that the hospital was located above a vast underground bunker that houses Hamas’s headquarters. Hospital staff say this is false and that Israeli investigations have so far not proven this to be the case.
Hamas denies military use of the hospital. Some of the hostages have been treated at medical centers, but they are not being taken into custody.
Baby, hostage die
A premature baby died at the hospital on Friday, Al Shifa staff said, making him the first infant to die at the hospital in two days since the Israeli army invaded. Three people died during a siege on the hospital the previous day.
Hamas also announced the death of a prisoner of war from Israel, saying the man died of a panic attack during an airstrike.
In Modine, Israel, the family held a funeral for Noah Marciano, 19, an Israeli army conscript whose body was taken near Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital on Thursday. She was abducted from a military base during a Hamas onslaught on October 7.
The military also announced that it had recovered the body of Yehudit Weiss, 65, a mother of five who was seized from Kibbutz Beeri.
Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations said 170 Russian nationals crossed into Egypt from Gaza on Friday, becoming part of a group of about 200 people who fled.