News24 | Gaza health ministry says 70 killed after Israel evacuation order

• The Gaza health ministry said 70 people were killed by an
  Israeli military operation in Khan Yunis after an evacuation order on Monday.
• Israel said the operation was part of efforts to curb
  rocket fire from the area.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in
  Washington to address the US Congress and meet with President Joe Biden.

The health
ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Monday that an Israeli operation in the main
southern city of Khan Yunis killed 70 people and wounded more than 200, after
Israel warned its forces would “forcefully operate” in the area.

Thousands
of Palestinians fled southern areas of the territory following the Israeli
army’s temporary evacuation order for parts of Khan Yunis, including the
Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone.

Israel’s
military said it would act to curb rocket fire in the area, which saw heavy
fighting earlier this year.

The latest
incident comes days after the health ministry said 92 people were killed in a
strike on Al-Mawasi, when Israel said it was targeting a Hamas commander.

Gaza’s
civil defence agency said at least 12 people were killed on Monday in Gaza
City, with four others killed in the Jabalia refugee camp.

Israel has
vowed to destroy Hamas and has launched intense military operations in areas of
Gaza that it previously had declared free of the militants.

Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, under pressure to reach a truce and
hostage-release deal, arrived in Washington on Monday to address the US
Congress.

Netanyahu
on Thursday will meet US President Joe Biden, who has pushed him to agree to a
ceasefire, more than nine months into the Gaza war ignited by the Palestinian
militant group’s 7 October attacks on Israel.

In late
June, Netanyahu said the war “in its intense phase” was about to end.

‘Enough!’

The
evacuation order for the Al-Mawasi area came just two months after the military
directed Palestinians there for their own safety.

“Due
to the Israeli occupation’s attacks and massacres in Khan Yunis governorate
from the early hours of this morning until now, 70 people have been martyred
and more than 200 wounded,” the Gaza health ministry said.

The Israeli
military did not offer comment on the toll when asked by AFP.

FOLLOW IT LIVE | DEVELOPING: Gaza health ministry says 70 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in Khan Younis

But in a
statement, the military said its fighter jets and tanks “struck and
eliminated terrorists in the area”.

It said
forces targeted more than “30 terror infrastructure” sites in Khan
Yunis. Israeli warplanes also hit a weapons storage facility, observation
posts, tunnel shafts and structures used by Hamas militants, it added.

Facing yet
another displacement, Palestinians filled the dusty streets of Khan Yunis with
cars, motorbikes, donkey-drawn carts, and on foot, carrying what belongings
they could.

Hassan
Qudayh said his family fled in “panic”.

“We
were happily making breakfast for our children, as we had been safe for a
month, only to be stunned by shells, warning leaflets and martyrs in the
streets,” he told AFPTV.

“This
is the 14th or 15th time we’ve been displaced.

“Enough!
We’ve been suffering for 10 months.”

‘Tired and fed up’

Hamas’s 7
October attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1 197 people,
mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

The
militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom are still in Gaza, including 44
the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s
retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 39 000 people, also
mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

The
relentless fighting has plunged Gaza into a severe humanitarian crisis.

Yussef Abu
Taimah from Al-Qarara in Khan Yunis said his family went to the humanitarian
zone but found no space.

“Even
the sidewalks are full of people and tents. We are tired and fed up. Enough of
this displacement and migration”.

Months of
intermittent talks for the first ceasefire and hostage-prisoner swap since
November have yielded little progress.

Netanyahu
will deliver a landmark speech to Congress on Wednesday amid unprecedented
strains between Israel and its ally the United States.

The Israeli
leader has repeatedly resisted pressure from the Biden administration to accept
a truce, which far-right members of his coalition oppose.

Biden on
Monday vowed to continue working to find a solution during his final months in
office, a day after announcing his withdrawal from the US presidential race.

“I’ll
be working very closely with the Israelis and with the Palestinians” to
end the war, achieve peace in the Middle East and return the hostages, he said
in a public call into his campaign headquarters.

Netanyahu
will hold a separate meeting during his visit with US Vice President Kamala
Harris, who looks set to replace Biden atop the Democratic ticket, an aide to
Harris told AFP on Monday.

Washington
fears a voter backlash over the mounting civilian war toll in Gaza, while
protests by anti-government demonstrators and families of hostages in Israel
are pressuring Netanyahu at home.

“Never
before has the atmosphere been so fraught,” said Steven Cook, a Middle
East specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“There
is clearly tension in the relationship, especially between the White House and
the Israeli prime minister,” Cook said in a commentary.

The visit
comes with the Gaza war again fuelling regional violence.

Israel on
Saturday attacked Yemen for the first time, in retaliation for a deadly drone
strike on Tel Aviv by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

There were
also further exchanges of fire between Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement
and the Israeli military at the weekend, as tensions remained high along the
border.

An Israeli
delegation will travel to Doha on Thursday to discuss new demands for a Gaza
truce and hostage-prisoner exchange, a source with knowledge of the talks said.

Egypt,
Qatar and the United States have been working to secure a deal between Israel
and Hamas.