Israel tanks advance deeper in southern Gaza as more ceasefire talks expected

JERUSALEM/GAZA / Arabtelegraph /— Palestinian residents of eastern neighbourhoods of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip fled their homes on Tuesday (July 23) as Israeli tanks advanced deep into the area after Israel ordered the population to evacuate.

The tanks pushed into the Khan Younis town of Bani Suhaila and several districts nearby were bombed for a second day, forcing tens of thousands of civilians to seek refuge elsewhere.

Israel said its action — the latest in a series of major assaults in recent weeks in parts of Gaza where it had long since claimed to have rooted out Hamas — was intended to prevent the militant group’s fighters from regrouping.Gaza health officials said Israeli military strikes since Monday killed at least 80 Palestinians in the Khan Younis area — adding to a death toll of more than 39,000 in nearly 10 months of warfare, according to Gaza authorities’ figures.

The Israeli military said Hamas and other groups used those areas to renew attacks, including firing rockets.

Many of the newly displaced families said they had to spend the night in the streets as they searched in vain for a space as western Khan Younis and central Gaza areas were overcrowded. Some of them said they had to flee under Israeli fire.

“For us, the most basic of essentials in our lives are not available,” a woman, Ibtihal Al-Breim, told Reuters in Khan Younis. “Basic needs (like) water which we had to carry, the electricity, of course, is cut off, food is cut off, let alone the expensive prices, and there’s no work.”

“And then suddenly you’re told now you have to leave. Without prior warning, suddenly rockets began falling on us. We had to leave and I wasn’t intending to leave — but then there were quadcopters and aircraft, we saw the tanks with our own eyes,” she added.

UN officials described scenes of despair on Tuesday as Israeli airstrikes hit the area. “The situation is impossible,” the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said on X.

In a later post, it said there was nowhere safe to go in Gaza.

“People are exhausted from the continuous displacement and unlivable conditions & they are trapped in increasingly small & overcrowded areas,” it said.

The Israeli military said dozens of militants had been killed in Khan Younis by its tanks and warplanes or in close-quarter combat. Weapon caches and tunnels used by the militants had been destroyed, it said.

Palestinian medics said one person was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the area on Tuesday. The Gaza health ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants. Health officials have said most of those killed have been civilians.