Jerusalem/Rafah, Gaza, Dec 5 (EFE).- At least 40 people were killed during raids by Israeli forces in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, while 10 others died at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the enclave, the official Palestinian agency Wafa reported Tuesday, citing Gazan medical officials.
Dozens were also wounded in Khan Younis, which has become a main target of Israel’s military campaign since a humanitarian truce broke down last week.
“Fierce fighting” was taking place around the city, according to the Israeli army and militants from Hamas, the Islamist group that governs the Gaza Strip, with Israeli troops expected to encounter greater resistance from Palestinian fighters in the area.
On Tuesday morning, militants reported dozens of artillery attacks on Israeli tanks and military vehicles approaching Khan Younis.
Wafa said a mosque in the southern city had been destroyed in Israeli shelling, while the fatalities at Nuseirat refugee camp in the center of the enclave were all registered in a house that was bombed.
An Israeli army spokesman, Colonel Richard Hecht, pointed out that Israel had urged people to evacuate areas near Khan Younis, where thousands of displaced people from the north of the Strip arrived in the first weeks of the war, when Israel ordered the evacuation of the northern half of the enclave.
More than 15,800 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip and around 7,000 are unaccounted for since the war began two months ago, following a brutal Hamas attack on Israeli soil on Oct. 7 that left more than 1,200 dead while 240 were kidnapped.
According to Israel, at least 5,000 of those killed inside the enclave are Hamas members, while 82 Israeli soldiers have died in the fighting in the Strip.
After a seven-day humanitarian truce was broken on Friday, Israel resumed its military offensive and expanded it southward, in addition to cutting off aid supplies arriving through the Rafah border crossing. EFE
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