Israel Kills ‘Dozens’ Of Hamas Fighters; UN Condemns ‘Massacre’ Of Civilians

By Worthy News’ George Whitten and Stefan J. Bos

JERUSALEM/GAZA (Worthy News) – Israel Defense Forces (IDF) battled Hamas in all parts of the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing dozens of suspected terrorists linked to the group over 24 hours, officials and witnesses said.

Yet as fighting intensified, the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Israel to protect civilians after a strike on a vast United Nations shelter in southern Gaza reportedly killed at least 12 people and injured 75 others.

“We have reaffirmed this with the government of Israel, and it is my understanding that they are, as is necessary and appropriate, looking into this incident,” Blinken said, without saying at what level discussions took place.

The attack hit a vocational training center housing 30,000 displaced people in Khan Younis, southern Gaza’s central city, the U.N. said.

The U.N. accused Israeli tanks of attacking the U.N. compound in Gaza, causing “mass casualties.” Israel denied its forces were responsible and suggested “Hamas terrorists” launched the shelling.

However, Israel’s military said it is looking into separate allegations that its forces opened fire on crowds of Palestinians queueing for aid in northern Gaza City.

At least 20 people were killed and 150 injured in the attack at the Kuwait roundabout, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.

‘HUNGRY MOUTHS’

Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesperson for the health ministry, said a “massacre” had been carried out on “hungry mouths.” Victims were being treated at al-Shifa hospital, which is out of medical supplies and only has a few doctors working, Qudra claimed.

Israel maintains that, in general, Hamas is using civilians as human shields and is hiding weapons and forces among residents to attack the Jewish nation.

As battles raged, air raid alarms marked the first time in almost four days that missiles were apparently launched from Gaza toward Israel.

Sirens were activated in Israel’s evacuated border community of Netiv Ha’asara near Haza with no reports of injuries or damage, Israeli sources said. The previous alerts near Gaza had sounded on Sunday afternoon.

Israeli troops have come under Hamas rocket and mortar fire during operations inside the Gaza Strip, which have at times also set off alarms in border communities.

Yet the number of rocket attacks on Israeli cities has reportedly gone down significantly in recent weeks as troops push deeper into the Gaza Strip, including in cities, according to sources familiar with the war.

The IDF confirmed Thursday that troops of its elite Commando Brigade were establishing operational control in “the heart of” Khan Younis city, a key Hamas stronghold.

MAJOR OFFENSIVE

It comes amid a major offensive led by IDF’s 98th Division against Hamas in the southern Gaza Strip city, Israeli media reported.

Snipers from the brigade’s Egoz unit, throughout several hours, killed several Hamas fighters who were being tricked into coming out of tunnels in the Khan Younis area, the IDF announced.

In other incidents, “Egoz troops spotted three Hamas gunmen and targeted them with an Iron Sting guided mortar, and killed four more operatives in close-quarters combat as the commandos raided a building,” the IDF said.

Additionally, another particular IDF unit raided a command center of the head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s intelligence unit and a Hamas command center in Khan Younis, the IDF said.

In the “command centers,” the IDF said troops seized weapons and military equipment, as well as maps and other “valuable” intelligence information.

IDF “Maglan commandos” also killed “many terrorists during intensive battles” in the Khan Younis area, the IDF added.

Earlier Thursday, the IDF said that snipers from the 98th Division’s Paratroopers Brigade had taken out “many terrorists” in the al-Amal neighborhood of Khan Younis.

TERRORISTS KILLED

The army said that in the previous 24 hours, dozens of “terrorists” were killed across the Strip. Among them were also 10 Hamas gunmen, some of whom were armed with rocket-propelled grenades, killed in two separate airstrikes in Khan Younis, officials said.

Yet the U.N.’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said civilians are suffering as two shells hit its Khan Younis Training Centre during fighting in the city’s western outskirts. Its commissioner condemned the “blatant disregard of basic rules of war.”

Elsewhere, Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis has run out of food, anesthetics, and painkillers, officials said. “The health and humanitarian situation in the hospital is extremely catastrophic due to the siege by the Israeli occupation forces,” the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry added.

The ministry claims clashes and bombardment around the city’s two main hospitals have also left thousands of patients, staff, and others unable to flee.

The war was triggered by an unprecedented cross-border attack by Hamas gunmen on southern Israel on 7 October, in which more than 1,200 people were killed and about 250 others taken hostage.

More than 25,700 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, though those figures have been difficult to verify.

Israel’s military suffers, too, with 210 Israeli soldiers killed in the war so far, according to official data. Nearly a fifth of those deaths were caused by accidents or friendly fire, the IDF explained. That is one of the highest such percentages in recent military history, adding to concerns about the urban warfare underway in Gaza.

Israel says Hamas is hiding its weapons and fighters among more than 2 million Palestinians trapped in Gaza, further complicating efforts to avoid civilian casualties.

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