The latest developments from the Israel-Hamas war.
ADVERTISEMENTIsrael's ground offensive expanded to every part of the Gaza Strip, its military said Sunday, as it ordered more evacuations and vowed to hit south Gaza with “no less strength” than the fight that has reduced large parts of north Gaza to a moonscape.
Heavy bombardment followed its evacuation orders, and Palestinians in the sealed-off territory bordering Israel and Egypt said they were running out of places to go.
Many of Gaza's 2.3 million people fled to the south after Israel ordered civilians to leave the north in the early days of the war, which was sparked by the 7 October Hamas militant group's attacks in Israel that killed about 1,200, mostly civilians.
After dark, gunfire and shelling were heard in the central town of Deir al-Balah as flares lit the sky. Israeli drones buzzed overhead in Gaza’s second-largest city, Khan Younis. The United Nation's human rights chief Volker Türk urged an end to the war, saying civilian suffering was “too much to bear.”
Residents said the military dropped leaflets calling Khan Younis “a dangerous combat zone” and ordering them to move to the border city of Rafah or a coastal area in the southwest.
Halima Abdel-Rahman, a widow and mother of four, said she's stopped heeding such orders. She fled her home in October to an area outside Khan Younis, where she stays with relatives.
“The occupation tells you to go to this area, then they bomb it,” she said by phone. “The reality is that no place is safe in Gaza. They kill people in the north. They kill people in the south.”
Hopes of securing a new truce fade
A Health Ministry spokesman asserted that hundreds had been killed or wounded since a weeklong ceasefire ended Friday. “The majority of victims are still under the rubble,” Ashraf al-Qidra said.
Ballistic missiles fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels struck three commercial ships in the Red Sea on Sunday, the latest in a series of maritime attacks in the Mideast linked to the war. The Iranian-backed Houthis claimed two of the attacks. A US warship also shot down three drones in self-defence during the hourslong assault, the US military said.
Hopes for another temporary truce in Gaza faded as Israel called its negotiators home, and senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said talks on releasing more hostages must be tied to a permanent ceasefire.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the war will continue until “all its goals” are achieved. One is to remove Hamas from power in Gaza.
The earlier ceasefire facilitated the release of 105 of the roughly 240 Israeli and foreign hostages taken to Gaza during the Oct. 7 attack, in exchange for 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Most of those released by both sides were women and children.
The US, Israel’s closest ally, has urged Israel to avoid significant new mass displacement and to do more to protect civilians. US Vice President Kamala Harris told Egypt's president that “under no circumstances” would Washington permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, an ongoing siege of Gaza or the redrawing of its borders.
As Harris flew from Dubai and an appearance at the UN climate conference back to Washington, she spoke by phone with Israeli President Isaac Herzog. They discussed the situation in the West Bank, with Harris reiterating US concerns about steps being taken that could escalate tensions — including extremist settler violence, according to a summary provided by Harris’ office.
Harris also spoke by phone during the flight to Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority. She again stated US support for the Palestinian people's right to security, dignity and self-determination, according to the summary.
Bodies pile up at Gaza hospitals
On the ground in Gaza, there was fear and mourning. Outside a Gaza City hospital, a dust-covered boy named Saaed Khalid Shehta dropped to his knees beside the bloodied body of his little brother Mohammad, one of several bodies laid out after people said airstrikes hit their street. He kissed him.
“You bury me with him!” the boy cried. A health worker at Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital said more than 15 children were killed.
Israel's military said its fighter jets and helicopters struck targets in Gaza including “tunnel shafts, command centres and weapons storage facilities." It acknowledged "extensive aerial attacks in the Khan Younis area."
ADVERTISEMENTThe bodies of 31 people killed in the bombardment of central Gaza were taken to the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah, said Omar al-Darawi, a hospital administrative employee. One woman wept, cradling a child’s body. Another carried the body of a baby. Later, hospital workers reported 11 more dead after another airstrike. Bloodied survivors included a child carried in on a mattress.
Outside a hospital morgue in Khan Younis, resident Samy al-Najeila carried the body of a child. He said his sons had been preparing to evacuate their home, “but the occupation didn’t give us any time. The three-floor building was eradicated, the whole block was totally destroyed.” He said six of the bodies were his relatives.
“Five people are still under the rubble,” he said. “God help us.”
In a video from the same crowded al-Nasser hospital, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said: “I feel like I’m almost failing in my ability to convey the endless killing of children here.”
Israel says it does not target civilians and has taken measures to protect them, including its evacuation orders. In addition to leaflets, the military has used phone calls and radio and TV broadcasts to urge people to move from specific areas.
ADVERTISEMENTIsrael says it targets Hamas operatives and blames civilian casualties on the militants, accusing them of operating in residential neighbourhoods. It claims to have killed thousands of militants, without providing evidence. Israel says at least 78 of its soldiers have been killed.
Efforts to bring more aid into Gaza complicated by widened offensive
The widening offensive likely will further complicate humanitarian aid to Gaza. Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Palestinian Crossings Authority, said 100 aid trucks entered Sunday, but UN agencies have said 500 trucks per day on average entered before the war.
The United Nations estimates that 1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced. Nearly 958,000 of them are packed into crowded UN facilities in the south, said Juliette Toma, director of communications at the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Heightening tensions on Israel's border with Lebanon and in Syria
Elsewhere in the region, Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group said it struck Israeli positions near the Lebanon-Israel border. Eight soldiers and three civilians were wounded by Hezbollah fire in the area of Beit Hillel, army radio reported. The military said its artillery struck sources of fire from Lebanon and its fighter jets struck other Hezbollah targets.
Iraqi militants with the Iran-backed umbrella group the Islamic Resistance in Iraq said they struck the Kharab al-Jir US military base in Syria with rockets. A US military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said rockets hit Rumalyn Landing Zone in Syria but there were no reports of casualties or damage.
ADVERTISEMENTLater Sunday, officials with Iranian-backed militias in Iraq said five militia members were killed in an airstrike blamed on the US near Kirkuk. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. A US official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a military operation not yet made public said the US had carried out a “self-defence strike” near Kirkuk targeting a drone staging site.
UK to carry out flights over Gaza to locate hostages
The United Kingdom will carry out surveillance flights over Israel and Gaza to help locate hostages held by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, the British Ministry of Defence has announced.
“Since the terrorist attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, the British government has been working with partners across the region to secure the release of hostages, including British nationals, who were kidnapped,” the ministry wrote in a statement.
“The safety of British nationals is our top priority,” it adds.
“To support hostage rescue operations, the UK Ministry of Defense will carry out surveillance flights over the Eastern Mediterranean, including airspace over Israel and Gaza,” the statement said.
ADVERTISEMENTThese planes “will not be armed” and “will not have a combat role”. Their sole mission will be to locate the hostages. “Only information relating to the release of hostages will be transmitted to the competent authorities responsible for the release of hostages.”
Some 240 people were kidnapped on 7 October during Hamas' unprecedented deadly attack in southern Israel, then taken to the Gaza Strip.
A seven-day truce allowed the release of around a hundred hostages in the hands of Hamas and 240 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
But nearly 140 people are still detained in the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli authorities.