© Reuters. Israeli troopers work on a tank close to the border with Gaza, amid the continuing battle between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, as seen from southern Israel, December 3, 2023. Image taken by way of a window. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko
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By Arafat Barbakh and Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA/CAIRO (Reuters) -The Israeli navy stated its forces have been confronting Hamas fighters throughout the Gaza Strip, indicating its deliberate floor offensive within the enclave’s refugee-crowded south had begun as Israeli bombing killed and wounded dozens of Palestinians.
The renewed warfare adopted the top on Friday of a seven-day pause within the combating between Israeli forces and Hamas militants which had allowed an change of 105 hostages held by Hamas, most of them Israelis, for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
The most recent violence came about regardless of calls from the USA — Israel’s closest ally — for Israel to restrict hurt to Palestinian civilians within the new part of its offensive, centered on the south.
Gaza residents stated on Sunday they feared an Israeli floor offensive on the southern areas was imminent. Tanks had lower off the highway between Khan Younis and Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, successfully dividing the Gaza Strip into three.
On Monday morning, Israel’s navy posted to X a press release with new orders to Gazans to evacuate about 20 areas or blocks within the Gaza Strip, with three arrows on the map all pointing south indicating the place individuals ought to go.
Israel says it’s defining “safe areas” for Gaza civilians to minimise hurt to them however U.N. officers and folks in Gaza say it’s troublesome to heed these orders in real-time given patchy web entry and unreliable electrical energy.
Lebanon-based Hamas official Osama Hamdan stated on Sunday: “There are no safe areas.”
Bombardments from battle planes and artillery have been additionally targeting Khan Younis and Rafah, one other metropolis in Gaza’s south, residents stated, and hospitals have been struggling to deal with the circulate of wounded.
Israel authorities spokesperson Eylon Levy stated the navy had struck greater than 400 targets over the weekend “including extensive aerial attacks in the Khan Younis area” and had additionally killed Hamas militants and destroyed their infrastructure in Beit Lahiya within the north.
There was no instant touch upon the experiences of particular assaults.
WIDESPREAD CLASHES
On Sunday, Hamas stated its fighters clashed with Israeli troops about 2 km (1 mile) from the southern metropolis of Khan Younis.
“The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) continues to extend its ground operation against Hamas centres in all of the Gaza Strip,” Israeli navy spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari instructed reporters in Tel Aviv. “The forces are coming face-to-face with terrorists and killing them.”
Israel stated on Monday its navy loss of life toll from floor operations in Gaza had risen to 76.
Early on Monday, Hamas media quoted emergency providers as saying an Israeli strike killed three civil emergency staff in Gaza Metropolis within the north of the coastal enclave.
The Jabalia refugee camp within the north of Hamas-ruled Gaza was among the many websites reported hit from the air on Sunday.
A Gazan well being ministry spokesperson stated a number of individuals have been killed by an Israeli air strike.
Footage obtained by Reuters confirmed a boy lined in gray mud, sitting weeping amid crumbled cement and rubble from collapsed buildings.
“My father was martyred,” he cried in a hoarse voice. A woman in a pink sweatshirt, additionally coated with mud, stood between piles of rubble.
SHIPPING ATTACKS
Assaults on transport within the southern Purple Sea on Sunday heightened fears of the battle spreading.
The U.S. Protection Division stated three industrial ships have been attacked by Yemen’s Iran-allied Houthi motion in worldwide Purple Sea waters, and a U.S. destroyer working within the space shot down three drones because it responded to misery calls.
A Houthi spokesperson stated its navy had attacked two Israeli ships within the Purple Sea with an armed drone and a missile on Sunday, although an Israeli navy spokesman stated the 2 ships had no connection to Israel.
Greater than 15,523 individuals have been killed, in accordance with Gaza’s well being ministry, in almost two months of warfare that broke out after a Hamas cross-border raid on southern Israel on Oct. 7 during which 1,200 Israelis have been killed and round 240 taken hostage. Israel says Hamas continues to carry 136 hostages.
Israel has vowed to annihilate Hamas. The Iranian-backed group is sworn to Israel’s destruction. The preliminary Hamas assault and the following battle quantity to the bloodiest episode within the decades-old wider Israel-Palestinian battle.
