Israeli forces surrounded the southern capital of Gaza on Wednesday, fighting Hamas militants through streets and buildings in some of the most intense fighting of the two-month war.
The focus of the conflict has shifted to the south of the besieged territory after fierce fighting and bombing that reduced much of the north to rubble and forced nearly two million people from their homes.
Israeli tanks, armored personnel carriers and bulldozers were seen near the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis on Tuesday, forcing already displaced civilians to pack up and flee again, witnesses told AFP.
“Our forces are now encircling the Khan Yunis area in the southern Gaza Strip,” said late on Tuesday evening the head of the Israeli army, Herzi Halevi.
“We secured many strongholds of Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip, and now we are acting against its strongholds in the south,” he said.
Tuesday’s fighting was “the most intense day since the ground operation began” in late October, said the head of the Army’s Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman.
Israel declared war on Hamas after the militant group’s attack on October 7 killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 240 hostages, according to Israeli authorities.
The latest figures from the Hamas-run government media office say 16,248 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Gaza.
At least 7,800 Palestinians are in Israeli prisons, the Association of Palestinian Prisoners announced today.
“Among the detainees are 33 women, 166 children and 2,873 people who have been held without trial or charge under Israel’s notorious policy of administrative detention,” the Palestinian NGO said in a statement.
Tensions are rising across the occupied West Bank amid fierce Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip that began after a cross-border Hamas attack on October 7.
“Israeli forces have detained 3,580 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7,” the statement said.
