Battle rages in main theatre of conflict
Published on: Sunday, January 28, 2024
By: AFP
An Israeli tank takes position at the western entrance of Khan Yunis’refugee camp as Palestinians flee with a few belongings to safer areas further south in the southern Gaza Strip
GAZA STRIP: Intense fighting raged Saturday in the Gaza city of Khan Yunis, the main theatre of conflict where the Israeli army is targeting the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas.
The unabated hostilities came a day after the UN’s International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that Israel must prevent possible acts of genocide in the conflict but stopped short of calling for a ceasefire.
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Tensions rose between Israel and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees after Israel charged that several UNRWA staff were involved in the Hamas attacks of October 7, leading some key donor countries to suspend funding.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Saturday that Israel wants to ensure the UN agency, with tens of thousands of staff in Gaza, “will not be a part of the day after” the bloodiest ever Gaza war.
Alarm has grown over the plight of civilians in Khan Yunis, the southern hometown of Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, the suspected mastermind of the October 7 attacks.
Witnesses reported more fierce fighting Saturday in the city, where the health ministry of the Hamas-run territory said “135 martyrs arrived at hospitals due to massacres throughout the night”.
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The Hamas government’s press office reported “massive tank bombardment since the morning” targeting a refugee camp and the Nasser hospital.
Gaza civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said tens of thousands, including children, endured a night of incessant and cold rain.
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Issuing a highly anticipated ruling on Friday, the UN’s top court said Israel must prevent genocidal acts in Gaza and allow humanitarian aid into the narrow strip of land, which has been under relentless bombardment and siege for almost four months.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the case as “outrageous” while Gaza’s Hamas rulers hailed the ruling, saying it “contributes to isolating Israel and exposing its crimes in Gaza”.
The decision was based on an urgent application brought by South Africa, long a supporter of the Palestinian cause, but a broader judgement on whether genocide has been committed could take years.
“This is the first time the world has told Israel that it is out of line,” said Maha Yasin, a 42-year-old displaced Gaza woman.
“What Israel did to us in Gaza for four months has never happened in history.”
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Saturday at least 26,257 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since the war with Israel broke out on October 7.
A ministry statement said at least 174 people were killed over the past 24 hours, while another 64,797 have been wounded since the war began.
The Israeli army says at least 220 soldiers have been killed since Israel launched its Gaza ground operations.
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