Gaza: Fighting rages in the South, rain falls on the North

by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Fadi Shana

DOHA/GAZA (Reuters) – Israel continued its campaign against Hamas in Khan Yunis, the main city in the southern Gaza Strip, on Saturday as heavy rain fell on displaced Palestinians seeking refuge further north.

Residents reported heavy air and tank fire in Khan Yunis, which has become the center of Israel’s ground offensive against Hamas, as well as around the city’s two main hospitals.

Hamas said its fighters fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli tank in the southwest of the city.

The Israeli army, for its part, said it had killed at least 11 gunmen who tried to plant explosives near troops, as well as other fighters who targeted soldiers with rifle fire and grenades. Over the past week, Israeli forces have killed more than 100 militants and raided weapons warehouses.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, allied with Hamas, said its fighters were engaging Israeli forces in the area and had fired rockets into Israel.

Gaza’s health ministry said the Israeli strikes hit Nasser Hospital, the largest operating medical facility in the south, as well as Al-Amal Hospital, where one person was killed in the courtyard, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Israeli bombings are compromising care and endangering the lives of doctors, patients and displaced people, ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra said.

The Israeli military says it is in contact with hospital directors and staff by phone and in the field to ensure they are functioning and accessible. Israel claims Hamas operates in and around medical facilities, which the group denies.

In a ruling handed down on Friday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to take all necessary measures to prevent any possible act of genocide in the conflict, without ordering a ceasefire.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later said the war to eliminate Hamas would continue.

Israel launched its air, sea and land offensive after militants from the group, which rules Gaza, attacked it on October 7, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping 253.

Some 26,257 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 65,000 injured so far, including 174 in the past 24 hours, Gaza health authorities said on Saturday. The majority of the enclave’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced.

Israel says 220 soldiers have died since launching its ground offensive and says it has killed at least 9,000 Gaza militants so far, a figure Hamas denies.

Residents and Hamas activists reported fighting Saturday in the center and north of the enclave, where heavy rains flooded the tents of displaced people, forcing some to seek alternative shelter in the middle of the night. night.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) announced on Friday the opening of an investigation into the alleged involvement of several of its employees in the Hamas attacks of October 7.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry criticized what it described as an Israeli campaign against the agency and Hamas condemned the termination of employees’ contracts “based on information from the Zionist enemy.”

In Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s residents are now sheltering in shelters and tents, Gaza’s health ministry said an Israeli airstrike killed three people in a house.

The identity of the victims was not immediately clear and the Israeli army made no comment.

In the occupied West Bank, a man was killed in an exchange of fire with Israeli forces near Jenin, residents said.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Doha, Fadi Shana in Gaza and Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem, additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, writing by Frances Kerry and Giles Elgood, French version Benjamin Mallet)