Israel Widens Evacuation Orders as Offensive Against Hamas Moves to Southern Gaza

Israel’s military on Sunday ordered more areas in and around Gaza,s second-largest city of Khan Younis to evacuate, as it shifted its offensive to the southern half of the territory where it says many Hamas leaders are hiding.Heavy bombardments were reported overnight and into Sunday in the area of Khan Younis and the southern city of Rafah, as well as parts of the north that had been the focus of Israel’s air and ground campaign.Many of the territory’s 2.3 million people are crammed in the south after Israeli forces ordered civilians to leave the north in the early days of the 2-month-old war, sparked by an October 7 attack by Hamas and other terrorists that killed about 1,400 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel. Around 240 more were taken hostage.With the resumption of fighting, hopes for another temporary truce receded. A weeklong cease-fire, which expired Friday, facilitated the release of dozens of Gaza-held Israeli and foreign hostages and Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.“We will continue the war until we achieve all its goals, and it’s impossible to achieve those goals without the ground operation,” Prime Minister Netanyahu said Saturday.Since the cease-fire collapsed, Hamas has fired scores of rockets into Israel. Most are intercepted or fall in open areas. Over 200,000 Israelis have been evacuated along the Gaza and Lebanon borders due to rocket fire.On Sunday, the Israeli military widened evacuation orders in and around Khan Younis, telling residents of at least five more areas and neighborhoods to leave. Several hundred thousand Palestinians have received evacuation orders since fighting resumed, but they have few places to go.Residents said the Israeli military dropped leaflets ordering them to move south to Rafah or to a coastal area in the southwest. “Khan Younis city is a dangerous combat zone,” the leaflets read.U.N. monitors said in a report issued before the latest evacuation orders that those who were told to leave make up about one-quarter of the territory of Gaza — home to nearly 800,000 people before the war. The Gaza Strip, bordering Israel and Egypt to the south, is sealed, leaving residents with the only option of moving around within Gaza to avoid the bombings.The Israeli military said its fighter jets and helicopters “struck terror targets in the Gaza Strip, including terror tunnel shafts, command centers and weapons storage facilities” overnight, while a drone killed five Hamas terrorists.Mark Regev, a senior adviser to Mr. Netanyahu, said Israel was making “maximum effort” to protect civilians and the military has used leaflets, phone calls, and radio and TV broadcasts to urge Gazans to move from specific areas. He added that Israel is considering creating a security buffer zone that would not allow Gazans direct access to the border fence on foot.Israel says it targets Hamas fighters and blames civilian casualties on the terrorists, accusing them of operating in residential neighborhoods. Israel says at least 78 of its soldiers have been killed in the offensive in northern Gaza.Meanwhile, Vice President Harris told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi in a meeting that “under no circumstances” would the United States permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, an ongoing siege of Gaza or the redrawing of its borders, according to an American summary of their conversation.The renewed hostilities have heightened concerns for 137 hostages, who the Israeli military says are still being held after 105 were freed during the recent truce. Israel freed 240 Palestinians during the truce. The hostages’ plight has drawn widespread attention and sympathy in Israel, and the government is under pressure to negotiate additional releases. The resumption of fighting appears to have put those efforts on hold and raised fears for the remaining hostages.The families of hostages have called for an urgent meeting with Israel’s Security Cabinet, saying time was “running out to save those still held by Hamas.”A group formed by family members of hostages said Sunday the prime minister and Security Cabinet had a “moral and ethical obligation” to meet with the relatives. “Security Cabinet members must provide families an answer to the question: How do they plan to maintain the supreme goal of the war – returning the hostages alive,” they said.

Israel Widens Evacuation Orders as Offensive Against Hamas Moves to Southern Gaza

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