Israeli troops and tanks collect close to the border with the Gaza Strip on December 3, 2023, after battles resumed between Israel and Hamas militants, as clashes proceed between Israel and Hamas militants on December 3, 2023.
Jack Guez | AFP | Getty Images
The Israeli army is expanding its offensive in southern Gaza, the place for a lot of the final two months it has informed Palestinian civilians to flee for his or her security.
The Israeli Defense Forces ramped up bombardment of Khan Younis, the besieged enclave’s second-largest metropolis, as the United Nations and Israel’s prime ally the U.S. confused the safety of civilians.
At least 50 individuals have been killed Tuesday in Israeli strikes on Khan Younis in the south and the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, in line with Palestinian information company Wafa. The outlet and different journalists on the bottom reported streams of ambulances speeding individuals to native hospitals.
It got here after U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the prevention of extra civilian hurt.
“The Secretary-General is extremely alarmed by the resumption of hostilities between Israel and Hamas … For people ordered to evacuate, there is nowhere safe to go and very little to survive on,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric stated in a statement.
U.S. nationwide safety advisor Jake Sullivan, chatting with press, stated that Israel has “indicated there are areas where there will be no strike zones, and in those zones we do expect Israel to follow through on not striking.”
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller stated that it’s “too early to make a definitive assessment … I have not seen evidence that they are intentionally targeting civilians,” however added: “We believe that far too many civilians have been killed.”
He blamed the Palestinian militant group Hamas — whose terror assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7 killed some 1,200 individuals and triggered the present conflict — for embedding itself in Gaza’s civilian infrastructure.
Israel’s offensive has killed greater than 15,800 individuals in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian well being authorities say.
Of the roughly 240 hostages taken into Gaza by Hamas on Oct. 7, the IDF estimates that 137 hostages stay there, in situations unknown. It follows hostage swaps for the discharge of Palestinian prisoners that have been carried out throughout a week-long cease-fire on the finish of November.