CAIRO: On Wednesday, hours before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to address the US Congress, Israeli forces launched more raids in the Gaza Strip.
Thousands of civilians were forced to flee westward in search of safety after the most recent Israeli attacks devastated homes in areas east of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, according to locals.
Residents of Bani Suhaila, east of Khan Younis, who were stuck in their homes and unable to escape, called the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service in distress, saying they could not get through to the town.
After an attack on Bani Suhaila, where Hamas claimed fighters had detonated a bomb on an Israeli army personnel carrier, medics reported that two Palestinians had died.
According to the Israeli military, it has been operating in regions from which fighters have been able to strike Israeli troops and launch rockets into Israel. Health officials in Gaza reported that Israeli military attacks had killed at least 55 people in the last 24 hours. These deaths are the most recent in a battle that has left over 39,000 Palestinians dead in the territory, according to health officials.
“Where ought we to go? Ghada, who has experienced six displacements with her family during the Israeli attack, asked via a messaging app from Hamad City in northwest Khan Yunis, “Should we cross into the sea?”
“We want the war to end now, not in an hour. We are starving and exhausted.” The location was now dangerous, according to the residents, who claimed they had been told to travel west toward a humanitarian area. The Israeli military ordered people to evacuate via social media, and some of the inhabitants also received phone instructions to depart.
Additionally, Israeli forces carried out airstrikes on a number of locations in central and northern Gaza, including the Al-Bureij camp in the center, where nine people are said to have died, according to health officials. The military claimed it was fighting militants in close quarters in the southern part of Rafah.
The military reported that “during area scans, the troops discovered a tunnel shaft, a significant quantity of weapons, and night vision equipment inside a children’s bedroom in a civilian building.”
As of Wednesday, 326 soldiers have been lost in Gaza, according to the military, which said that one soldier was gravely injured in fighting. The majority of Palestinians killed, according to local health officials, have been civilians. However, the Palestinian Health Ministry does not discriminate between combatants and non-combatants in their death reports. At least a third, according to Israel, are warriors.
Prior to funerals, a group of Palestinians congregated at a hospital in Khan Yunis and voiced their disapproval of the United States, Israel’s principal foreign supporter, for having welcomed Netanyahu.
“A major player in what’s going on in Gaza is the United States. The United States is the reason we are being killed. American troops, ships, tanks, and aircraft are killing us,” claimed Kazem Abu Taha, a Rafah resident who was forced to flee.
