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Israel intensified the assault on Khan Younes, in the southern Gaza Strip, amid widespread mourning for the army's deadliest day in Gaza.
Israel kept up its heavy assault on the "encircled" Gazan city of Khan Younes on Wednesday, following an outpouring of grief over the army's deadliest single day since ground operations in the territory began.
As the fighting raged in the Gaza war, the UN humanitarian agency, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that Israeli forces on Tuesday had issued fresh evacuation orders for a section of Khan Younes, housing an estimated half a million residents and displaced people.
The orders came as the World Food Program (WFP) Tuesday warned that Gazans were facing "catastrophic food insecurity."
The office of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas decried the "dangerous demands" for residents to head south and warned that Israel intended to "displace the Palestinian people from their homeland, thus leading to unforeseeable consequences", according to official news agency, Wafa.
Twenty-four Israeli troops were killed on Monday, 21 of them reservists slain "when a squad of terrorists surprised the force" with rocket-propelled grenade fire, military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Tuesday.
Mourners filed into funerals for the reservists on Tuesday, including some with no connection to the deceased.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said an investigation had been launched into the "disaster."
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, meanwhile, decried Israeli officials' repeated rejection of calls for the creation of a Palestinian state as "unacceptable" in a speech to the Security Council, saying it "would indefinitely prolong" the conflict.
Katrine Dige Houmøller, with AFP
Israel kept up its heavy assault on the "encircled" Gazan city of Khan Younes on Wednesday, following an outpouring of grief over the army's deadliest single day since ground operations in the territory began.
As the fighting raged in the Gaza war, the UN humanitarian agency, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that Israeli forces on Tuesday had issued fresh evacuation orders for a section of Khan Younes, housing an estimated half a million residents and displaced people.
The orders came as the World Food Program (WFP) Tuesday warned that Gazans were facing "catastrophic food insecurity."
The office of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas decried the "dangerous demands" for residents to head south and warned that Israel intended to "displace the Palestinian people from their homeland, thus leading to unforeseeable consequences", according to official news agency, Wafa.
Twenty-four Israeli troops were killed on Monday, 21 of them reservists slain "when a squad of terrorists surprised the force" with rocket-propelled grenade fire, military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Tuesday.
Mourners filed into funerals for the reservists on Tuesday, including some with no connection to the deceased.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said an investigation had been launched into the "disaster."
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, meanwhile, decried Israeli officials' repeated rejection of calls for the creation of a Palestinian state as "unacceptable" in a speech to the Security Council, saying it "would indefinitely prolong" the conflict.
Katrine Dige Houmøller, with AFP
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