Israel focuses assault on southern Gaza amid concern over wider war
PHOTO CAPTION: An Israeli soldier takes position during the ongoing ground operation of the Israeli army against Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, at a location given as Gaza, in this picture released on November 17, 2023. Israeli Defence Forces/Handout via REUTERS
By Mohammad Azakir, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Arafat Barbakh
BEIRUT/CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) -Israeli shelling killed 14 Palestinians on Thursday in Khan Younis in a southern coastal area of the Gaza Strip packed with people who had fled attacks in other parts of the enclave, Gaza health ministry officials said.
The dead included nine children, an official told Reuters.
There was no comment from the Israeli military on the attack although it had reported fighting and air strikes against Hamas militants in the Khan Younis area on Thursday.
Gaza residents also said Israeli planes and tanks bombarded three refugee camps in the centre of the shattered enclave, prompting many civilians to head south.
Five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a car in Al-Nusseirat refugee camp, health officials told Reuters.
Israel's war against Hamas is nearing the three-month mark amid international concern that the conflict is spreading beyond Gaza, drawing in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Hezbollah forces on the Lebanon-Israel border, and Red Sea shipping lanes.
Fears were heightened after a drone strike on Tuesday killed Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri in the Lebanese capital Beirut. He was buried in the Palestinian camp of Shatila in the city on Thursday, amid throngs of mourners launching volleys of gunfire.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed that his powerful Iran-backed Shi'ite militia "cannot be silent" following the killing. Nasrallah said his forces would fight to the finish if Israel chose to extend the war to Lebanon, but he made no concrete threats to act against Israel in support of Hamas.
Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari declined to comment when asked what Israel was doing to prepare for a potential Hezbollah response, saying only: "We are focused on the fight against Hamas."
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, meeting U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, said there must be a "new reality" in the Lebanon-Israel border region which would allow Israelis who have evacuated northern areas to return.
Hezbollah has been embroiled in nearly daily exchanges of shelling with Israel across Lebanon's southern border since the Gaza war began. Israel neither confirmed nor denied assassinating Arouri but has promised to annihilate Hamas, which rules Gaza, following its Oct. 7 cross-border assault in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed and some 240 abducted.
Israel unleashed a ground and air blitz of Gaza in response to the Hamas attack. The total recorded Palestinian death toll had reached 22,438 by Thursday - almost 1% of its 2.3 million population, the Gaza health ministry said. Some 125 of these were killed in the past 24 hours, it said.
Adding to the patchwork of violence across the region, two explosions on Wednesday killed nearly 100 people during a memorial ceremony for the late Iranian General Qasem Soleimani at the cemetery in southeastern Iran where he is buried. No group has claimed responsibility.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was heading for the Middle East, including a stop in Israel, to continue "diplomatic consultations", a U.S. official said.
GAZA BLOODSHED
In Thursday's reported strike in Al-Mawasi on the western side of Khan Younis, health ministry officials said nine children were among the 14 dead. Israeli shells had landed near tents erected in the area by displaced people, they said.
Footage on Palestinian media showed several bodies wrapped in blankets inside a hospital morgue in Khan Younis.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said its headquarters in Khan Younis was hit, killing one person and wounding others.
The Israeli military reported several clashes in Khan Younis, where it has said previously that it is trying to flush out Hamas leaders hiding there.
In its daily briefing, it said Israeli warplanes killed three Hamas militants who had tried to detonate explosive next to ground troops, and Israeli soldiers killed two more.
MUD ADDS TO MISERY
Israeli bombardments have flattened much of the densely populated enclave and created a humanitarian disaster. Most Gazans have been left homeless, with food shortages threatening famine.
On Thursday, people poured out of Al-Bureij, Al-Maghazi and Al-Nusseirat refugee camps following attacks, with some families riding on donkey carts loaded with mattresses, luggage and children. Rain has turned earth to mud, adding to the misery.
"Israel is showing its muscles on civilians, women and children. They are cowards," said Salama Ahmed, 49, a north Gaza resident and father of five heading to Rafah in the south.
"...Are they fighting Hamas? They are fighting the unarmed civilians," he told Reuters
While Israel has pledged to eradicate Hamas, its longer term plans for the enclave are unclear. Foreign governments and organisations have said any solution must address Palestinian aspirations for an independent state, but that seems distant.
In the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians also seek statehood, Israeli forces searched houses in the Nour al-Shams refugee camp in Tulkarm city on Thursday.
Residents said troops detained at least 120 people and demolished three houses, including one belonging to a member of the Tulkarm Brigades, a militant group linked to the Palestinian faction Fatah.
(Reporting by Mohammad Azakir in Beirut, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo, Arafat Barbakh in Gaza, Maayan Lubell at the Israel-Gaza border, Dan Williams and Emily Rose in Jerusalem and Trevor Hunnicutt and Jonathan Landay in Washington; Writing by Angus MacSwan, Alexandra Hudson; Editing by Nick Macfie)
