The Gaza Health Ministry announced that 70 Palestinians had been killed in Israeli operations in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, from where thousands fled in panic following a military evacuation order.
As the war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas continues unabated, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on his way to Washington, where he is due to deliver a speech to Congress on Wednesday.
He is also due to meet Joe Biden on Thursday, a senior US official told AFP on Monday.
The President of the United States pledged on Monday to “continue working to end the war in Gaza.” His Vice President Kamala Harris, who is expected to win the Democratic Party’s nomination for the November presidential election, will also meet with Benjamin Netanyahu “this week” in Washington, according to her office.
Leaving Israel, the Israeli prime minister considered his visit “very important” at a time of “great political uncertainty”, following Joe Biden’s decision not to run again in the November election.
As Israel’s main ally and military supporter, the Biden administration had been irritated in recent months by the consequences of the Israeli response to the attack carried out on October 7 in Israel by the Palestinian Hamas, which triggered the war in Gaza, insisting on the protection of civilians and the entry of humanitarian aid.
PHOTO ABIR SULTAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
In the Gaza Strip, devastated and besieged by Israel for more than nine months, the Israeli offensive continues against the Islamist movement Hamas and other Palestinian groups, particularly in regions which the army had previously announced it had regained control of.
At least 70 Palestinians have been killed and more than 200 injured in “attacks by the Israeli occupation in Khan Younis governorate since this morning and until now,” said the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led government, which has ruled Gaza since 2007.
Contacted by AFP, the army did not immediately react. But in a statement, it affirmed that its air force and tanks “had bombed and eliminated terrorists in the region.”
In front of the Nasser hospital in Khan Younès where the dead and wounded were transported, heartbreaking scenes took place under the helpless gaze of the medical staff: a man brandishes the corpse of a baby while screaming, a woman collapsed under grief hits her head, people covered in blood with haggard looks.
“Gaza is finished”
PHOTO FATIMA SHBAIR, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
The al-Mawasi “humanitarian zone”
The army withdrew from Khan Younis, the largest city in the south of the Palestinian territory, in early April, saying it had completed its operations against Hamas, considered a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union and Israel, after months of intense bombardment and fighting.
But earlier Monday, she ordered people to leave eastern Khan Younis again, saying she was preparing an “operation against terrorist organizations” after rockets were fired from the area toward Israel.
“We were happy to prepare breakfast,” and suddenly “the shells fall, then the warning leaflets,” said Hassan Qoudayh, who had to flee with his family like thousands of others who left in panic.
“There were martyrs in the streets. Gaza is finished, Gaza is dead. There is nothing left, nothing. Enough!” he said.
PHOTO BASHAR TALEB, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Palestinians sit in front of a building destroyed in a previous Israeli bombardment in Khan Younis on July 19.
Displaced for the fourth time, Youssef Abou Taimah can’t take it anymore. “We’re going to live on the streets! We’re exhausted, we can’t take these displacements anymore.”
On Monday evening, Israeli strikes in the northern Gaza Strip left 12 dead in Gaza City and four in the Jabalia camp, according to the official spokesman for the civil defense in the Gaza Strip.
On October 7, Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza into southern Israel carried out an attack that killed 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data. Of the 251 people kidnapped at the time, 116 are still being held in Gaza, including 44 who died, according to the army.
In response, Israel launched a major air and ground offensive in Gaza, which left more than 39,000 people dead, mostly civilians, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government.
Death of two hostages
On Monday, the Hostage Forum announced the deaths of two men kidnapped on October 7, Voyage Bucheuse, 35, and Alex Dancing, 76. The deaths are a “stern reminder of the urgency” of freeing the hostages, the Forum said, without specifying the circumstances of their deaths.
With Qatar and Egypt, Washington is trying to restart negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza associated with the release of hostages. An Israeli delegation is expected in Doha on Thursday, according to a source close to the talks.
In support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which is facing a humanitarian disaster and threatened with famine according to the UN, the Houthi rebels in Yemen and the Lebanese Hezbollah, allies of Hamas and Iran, Israel’s sworn enemy, have opened fronts against the latter country.
On Saturday, a day after a deadly Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv, Israel bombed the strategic port of Hodeida in rebel-held western Yemen, killing six people.