ISRAELI troops have launched a new assault into the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, targeting Hamas fighters who the military claims still operate there despite repeated offensives.
It comes as American, Qatari and Egyptian mediators renewed their push for Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire deal.
Israeli evacuation orders triggered yet another exodus of Palestinians from the heavily destroyed eastern districts of Khan Younis, where many had just returned less than two weeks ago – after the Israeli military’s last incursion into the city in July.
A wave of Israeli air strikes in the city on Friday killed at least 21 Palestinians, medics at the city’s Nasser Hospital said.
One of the air strikes hit the home of the Abu Moamar family, killing a Palestine TV journalist, his wife and three daughters.
Another strike smashed into tents housing displaced people in Mawasi, a costal community just west of Khan Younis that the Israeli military has designated as a humanitarian zone, killing a journalist for the Hamas-run Al Aqsa TV channel and five others.
A third air strike targeted a car in Khan Younis.
Thousands had fled the city on Thursday, carrying essentials such as small gas cylinders, mattresses, tents, backpacks and blankets.
It is at least the third time that Israeli forces have launched a major incursion into Khan Younis, where Israeli and American officials have said they believe Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s newly named top leader and one of the architects of the October 7 attack on Israel, could be hiding.
Much of the city has been reduced to ruins.
The military said on Friday its warplanes struck 30 Hamas targets in the city, including fighters and weapons storage sites.
It said troops were searching for Hamas tunnels and other infrastructure while engaging in combat “above and below ground”.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 39,600 Palestinians and wounded more than 91,700 others.
More than 1.9 million of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have been driven from their homes, fleeing repeatedly across the territory to escape offensives.
Most are now crowded into makeshift tent camps.
With sanitation systems collapsed, diseases have run rampant, health officials say, and humanitarian groups are trying to feed the population.
The United Nations has said half a million Palestinians are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
