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SvennoJ on 23 January 2024
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Khan Younis surrounded by IDF as hundreds try to flee city’s hospitals. Catch up here

Israel’s military said its troops have surrounded Khan Younis in southern Gaza, as hundreds of people displaced on hospital grounds in the city try to flee the area. A major Israeli military offensive underway in the west of the city is expected to last several more days, according to a source familiar with the operation.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said people at its headquarters, as well as at the nearby Al-Amal Hospital, are “in a state of panic and trying to escape ongoing Israeli bombardment.” “We are getting ready to evacuate, but there are intense clashes all around us. People are leaving their homes and then turning back. It’s very dangerous in the area,” Ahmad Nassem, a resident of Al-Amal neighborhood in Khan Younis, told CNN Tuesday.

Dr. Ahmad Al-Moghrabi from Nasser Hospital told CNN Tuesday there was “fierce fighting” around the medical facility. “We are being asked to evacuate but there is fierce fighting and snipers surrounding the hospital,” he said. “It's really difficult, all the roads are blocked. We don’t know how to evacuate.”

Meanwhile, Israel is reeling from the deaths of at least 24 of its soldiers in Gaza, in what is the biggest single loss of life for Israeli troops in the enclave since the war with Hamas began.



The Hamas-controlled health ministry in the enclave said Tuesday that 195 people had been killed and 354 injured in Gaza during the past 24 hours. It said “a number of victims are still under the rubble and on the roads, and ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them.”

Dr. Ashraf al-Qidra, a spokesperson for the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza, accused the IDF of committing massacres west of Khan Younis and preventing the movement of ambulances. Intense combat has been reported in the area in recent days as Israeli ground operations extend further south in the enclave.

Israeli forces open fire on car with people fleeing to Rafah

An Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent has reported that Israeli forces are closing the road that leads to the Rashid coastal road from Khan Younis towards Rafah, preventing the movement of displaced people. Earlier, four Palestinians arriving to Rafah were killed after their car was targeted by an Israeli tank, the correspondent said.

Thousands of people have left Khan Younis to Rafah, as a result of the ongoing Israeli bombing, despite the dangerous situation on the roads.

‘My daughter’s gone’: Survivor recounts Israeli attack on ‘safe area’

Witnesses have described how Israeli forces targeted the al-Mawasi area, despite designating it as a “safe zone”. Thousands of displaced people had set up their tents in the area, which is located in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, west of Khan Younis.

One woman, who lost her husband and daughter in the attack, said the tents caught fire. “We witnessed a difficult night and day of intense bombing and targeting,” she said, saying that she does not know how she survived the bombing. “The occupation planes fired at us in our tents, and at the same time, Israeli vehicles stormed the area, and after that, there were artillery shells that fell on us.”

She tried to pull out her children, but couldn’t save her daughter. “Every time I came forward, I found the fire. My daughter was gone. The next day, I saw the bodies of my husband and daughter at the hospital … they were charred beyond recognition,” she said. The woman, who suffered burns and fractures in her feet and hand, said there are no safe areas. “It’s all a lie,” she said. “The Israeli army ordered people and gathered them in al-Mawasi area and then targeted it.”



Gaza death toll rises to 25,490

Attacks by the Israeli army since the start of the war have killed at least 25,490 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the latest figures by the enclave’s Health Ministry. It said 63,354 people have also been injured since October 7.

Attacks in the latest 24-hour reporting period killed at least 195 Palestinians and wounded 354 with more victims believed to be under the rubble and unreachable.

Gaza hit with another ‘near-total’ comms blackout

Gaza is once more affected by a “near-total telecommunications blackout” amid relentless Israeli attacks, according to an internet watchdog. “The incident is likely to severely limit most residents’ ability to communicate, in the tenth such incident since the start of the war,” Netblocks said in a post on X.

Its data showed that the connectivity status for the Rafah governorate to the south was worst, with connectivity levels dropping to as low as 5 percent.

Over half a million Palestinians face ‘catastrophic hunger’

The United Nations Relief Works and Agency (UNRWA) says that more than half a million people in Gaza face catastrophic hunger. In the northern part of the besieged enclave, very little aid has reached residents and displaced families there, who have begun to grind animal feed into flour.

UNRWA pointed out that intense fighting, communications blackouts and access restrictions have hindered the organisation’s ability to “safely and effectively deliver aid”.



At least 24 soldiers killed in biggest single Israeli loss during Gaza combat, military says

Twenty-one Israeli soldiers were killed during fighting in southern Gaza on Monday, the military said, in the biggest single loss of life for Israeli troops inside the battered enclave since the war with Hamas began.

Precise details are not yet clear but in a televised statement Tuesday Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said a tank that was protecting Israeli troops was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG). Israeli media reported that two soldiers in the tank were killed.

Simultaneously, two two-story buildings collapsed on soldiers following an explosion. Most of the Israeli forces killed were in or near the buildings, Hagari said. “The buildings probably exploded because of the mines that our forces laid there, in preparation to demolish them and the infrastructure around,” he said.

It brings the total number of Israeli troops killed in the Gaza ground invasion to 219, Israel's military said. Another soldier was seriously injured in the same incident, Hagari added. The IDF told CNN on Tuesday it is "still not clear" what caused the building explosion.

Israeli army deaths make it more important than ever to defeat ‘Nazi enemy’

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir says the deaths of 24 soldiers in a single day make it “clearer than ever” that Israel must not cease operations in Gaza. Israel “must continue to subdue, crush and mow down the Nazi enemy in Gaza with all our might”, he wrote in a Telegram post.

 

Here comes the backpedaling

Ceasefire-for-hostages offer is “far from being a proposal,” says Israeli official

While there is an “Israeli initiative” to offer Hamas a two-month ceasefire in exchange for all of the hostages held in Gaza, it is “far from being a proposal,” an Israeli official familiar with the idea told CNN Tuesday. The initiative is “a way to check whether the framework will work,” the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss internal government conversations.

Another just for show 'proposal'.