Israeli offensive shifts to crowded southern Gaza, driving up death toll

Israel pounded targets in the crowded southern half of the Gaza Strip on Saturday and ordered more neighbourhoods designated for attack to evacuate, driving up the death toll even as the United States and others urged it to do more to protect Gaza civilians a day after a truce collapsed.

At least 200 Palestinians have been killed since the fighting resumed on Friday morning following a week-long truce with Hamas, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. Several homes were hit across Gaza on Saturday, with multiple casualties reported in a strike that flattened a house on the outskirts of Gaza City.

Separately, the ministry announced that the overall death toll in Gaza since the October 7 start of the Israel-Hamas war surpassed 15,200, a sharp jump from the previous count of more than 13,300 on November 20. The ministry stopped issuing daily updates of the overall toll on November 11, following war-related disruptions of connectivity and hospital operations.

The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but said on Saturday that 70 per cent of the dead were women and children. It said more than 40,000 people were wounded over the past two months.

With the end of the temporary truce, Israel has been urged by the United States, its closest ally, to do more to protect Palestinian civilians.

The appeal came after a blistering air and ground offensive in the first weeks of the war devastated large areas of northern Gaza, killing thousands of Palestinians and displacing hundreds of thousands. Some 2 million Palestinians, almost the entire population of Gaza, are now crammed into the territory's southern half.

It was not clear if Israel’s military would heed appeals to spare civilians. The military said Saturday that it hit more than 400 Hamas targets across Gaza over the past day, using airstrikes and shelling from tanks and navy gunships. It included more than 50 strikes in the city of Khan Younis and surrounding areas in the southern half of Gaza.

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At least nine people, including three children, were killed in a strike on a house in Deir Al-Balah city in the south, according to the hospital where the bodies were taken. The hospital also received seven bodies of others killed in overnight airstrikes, including two children.

In northern Gaza, an airstrike flattened a residential building hosting displaced families in the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya on the outskirts of Gaza City. The strike on the multi-story building left dozens dead or wounded, said residents Hamza Obeid and Amal Radwan.

“There was a loud bang, then the building turned into a pile of rubble,” Obeid said.

Meanwhile, Palestinian militant groups in Gaza said they fired a barrage of rockets on southern Israel. Sirens were heard in communities near the Gaza Strip but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

In the clearest sign yet that a return to negotiations for further truces was unlikely, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directed negotiators to return to Israel.

With the resumption of fighting, the Israeli military published an online map carving up the Gaza Strip into hundreds of numbered parcels and asked residents to familiarize themselves with the number of their location ahead of evacuation warnings.

On Saturday, the military used the map for the first time, listing more than two dozen parcel numbers in areas around Gaza City in the north and east of Khan Younis. Separately, the military dropped leaflets with evacuation orders over towns east of Khan Younis.

One resident in Khan Younis said a neighbour received a call from the army warning that houses in the area would be hit and everyone should leave. “We told them, ‘We have nothing here, why do you want to strike it?’" said the resident, Hikmat Al Qidra. They eventually left, and Al Qidra said the house was destroyed.

The maps and leaflets generated panic and confusion, especially in the crowded south. Unable to go to northern Gaza or neighboring Egypt, their only escape is to move around within the 220-square-kilometre area.

“There is no place to go,” said Emad Hajar, who fled with his wife and three children from the north a month ago to Khan Younis. “They expelled us from the north, and now they are pushing us to leave the south."

Amal Radwan, who sheltered in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, said she was not aware of such a map, adding that she and many others were not able to leave because of the relentless bombardment. “Here is death and there is death," she said.

Israel says it is targeting Hamas operatives and blames civilian casualties on the militants, accusing them of operating in residential neighbuorhoods. It claims to have killed thousands of militants, without providing evidence. Israel says 77 of its soldiers have been killed in the ground offensive in northern Gaza.

Also on Saturday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said it had received aid trucks through the Rafah crossing, the first convoy since fighting resumed. Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Palestinian Crossings Authority, said 50 trucks were scheduled to enter Gaza but said there were no fuel trucks among them.

“Current conditions do not allow for a meaningful humanitarian response, and I fear will spell disaster for the civilian population,” Pascal Hundt, in charge of operations in Gaza for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, US Vice-President Kamala Harris, who was in Dubai on Saturday for the COP28 climate conference, said in a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi that “under no circumstances” would the United States permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, the besiegement of Gaza or the redrawing of its borders, according to a US summary of the meeting.

Harris was expected to outline proposals with regional leaders to “put Palestinian voices at the centre” of planning the next steps for the Gaza Strip after the conflict, according to the White House. President Joe Biden’s administration has emphasized the need for an eventual two-state solution, with Israel and a Palestinian state coexisting.

The renewed hostilities have heightened concerns for 136 hostages who, according to the Israeli military, are still held by Hamas and other militants after 105 were freed during the truce.

For families of remaining hostages, the truce’s collapse was a blow to hopes their loved ones could be the next out. A 70-year-old woman held by Hamas was declared dead on Saturday, according to her kibbutz, bringing the total number of known dead hostages to eight.

During the truce, Israel freed 240 Palestinians from its prisons. Most of those released from both sides were women and children.

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