Dozens of Israeli tanks entered southern Gaza, sparking fears of an imminent ground offensive in the zone. Meanwhile, the UN reports that around 1.8 million people have been displaced in Gaza.
Dozens of Israeli tanks rolled into southern Gaza on Monday, witnesses said, despite global concern over mounting civilian deaths and fears the war on Hamas will spread elsewhere in the Middle East.
Weeks after Israel sent ground forces into northern Gaza, the army has been air-dropping leaflets in parts of the besieged territory’s south, telling Palestinians to flee to other areas. Tanks, armored personnel carriers, and bulldozers were seen Monday near the city of Khan Yunis, which is crowded with internally displaced Palestinians, witnesses told AFP.
Amin Abu Hawli, 59, said the Israeli vehicles were two kilometers (1.2 miles) inside Gaza in the village of al-Qarara, while Moaz Mohammed, 34, said Israeli tanks were moving down the strip’s main north-south highway, the Salah al-Din road.
The military was trying to cut the road between Deir al-Balah in central Gaza and Khan Yunis, “firing bullets and tank shells at cars and people trying to move through the area,” Mohammed said.
Israeli Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said Sunday that the army “continues to expand its ground operation against main Hamas fronts in the Gaza Strip”. “Wherever there is a Hamas stronghold, the IDF operates,” he added.
Air strikes have since intensified in Gaza’s south, said James Elder, a spokesman for the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF.
Israel’s military said Sunday it had carried out around 10,000 air strikes in total, while Gaza militants had resumed rocket salvos into Israel, most of which had been intercepted.
The Gaza Health Ministry said that 15,899 people had died in the Palestinian territory since the start of the war with Israel, with 42,000 wounded.
The Israeli army said Monday three more soldiers had been killed in fighting in the northern Gaza Strip, raising the number of troop deaths there to 75. The fatalities brought to 401 the number of Israeli personnel killed since October 7, among them those killed in the Hamas attacks themselves and including soldiers, reservists, kibbutz guards, and others.
The Israel-occupied West Bank has also seen a surge in violence since October.
The Palestinian Authority’s health ministry said two Palestinians had been shot dead in an Israeli raid on the northern West Bank town of Qalqilya, adding that Israeli forces kept the two bodies.
In its latest estimate, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said around 1.8 million people in Gaza, roughly 75 percent of the population, had been displaced, many to overcrowded and unsanitary shelters. Many people have been forced to flee to the south of the Gaza Strip and fear being pushed towards the border with Egypt. Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus said on Monday that Israel was not “trying to displace anyone.”
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Many Palestinians fear a repeat of the displacement of 760,000 Palestinians that took place during the war that led to Israel’s creation 75 years ago.
Miroslava Salazar, with AFP
