Israel bombs the southern Gaza Strip after an American warning about the killing of civilians

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Israel ordered the evacuation of a large area of ​​land in the southern Gaza Strip, while intensifying its aerial bombardment of the Strip, which led to the deaths of hundreds of people during the three days since the collapse of the truce with Hamas.

The evacuation order appears to indicate preparations for an Israeli attack against Hamas in and around Khan Yunis, the second largest city in Gaza and now the largest population center in the south. Leaflets were dropped and text messages were sent warning of heavy upcoming military activity.

Israeli army spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Monday that the Israeli army has “entered a new phase” in the war and is “pursuing Hamas wherever Hamas is hiding – in the north and south.”

He added: “Every missile launcher, weapons depot, command and control center, senior commander, underground infrastructure, and any bunker where our hostages may be held.”

Reports in the Israeli media and from inside Gaza indicated that IDF forces stationed in northern Gaza had begun a tentative shift south, just as the IDF said it was continuing its offensive against remaining Hamas strongholds in the north. The Israeli army said that air strikes killed two Hamas brigade commanders in northern Gaza on Sunday.

Herzi Halevy, Chief of the General Staff of the Israeli Army, said on Sunday that the Israeli military operation in southern Gaza will be a repetition of a previous operation against Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip.

“Just as we are [fought against Hamas] Halevy told IDF soldiers gathered outside the besieged Palestinian territories:

The escalating fighting came even after US officials, from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to Vice President Kamala Harris, warned Israel against taking more steps to protect civilians in Gaza. The United States pays up to a fifth of Israel’s defense budget – which currently stands at about $3.8 billion annually – under the Obama administration agreement.

“In this type of combat, the civilian population is the center of gravity. If you push them into the arms of the enemy, you are trading tactical victory for strategic defeat,” Austin told the Reagan National Defense Forum in California over the weekend.

Asked on Sunday about US concerns, Elon Levy, an Israeli government spokesman, said: “We completely agree that a very large number of people have been killed in this war. It is a sad fact that everyone who has been killed since October 7… would have been He may still be alive if Hamas had not decided to launch this war.”

In response to Harris’ comments that the civilian death toll in Gaza was too high, Levy insisted that “the IDF made every effort.” [in] And fulfill our obligations under international law to keep civilians out of harm’s way.

Israel and Hamas returned to fighting when a week-long truce brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States collapsed on Friday.

The cessation of hostilities allowed for the release of approximately 100 Israeli and foreign women and children held hostage by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups. In return, Israel released about 240 Palestinian women and children from Israeli prisons, and there was a new flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, which has been controlled by Hamas since 2007.

More than 15,520 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to Palestinian officials. Israel estimates that 1,200 people were killed by Hamas during its attack on October 7, when the group also took about 240 hostage.

Palestinian officials said on Sunday that 316 people had been killed since combat operations resumed on Friday. But they also said this only included those who had been taken to hospitals, not those still under the rubble.

Dozens of people were killed in an air strike on Saturday on a six-story building in a refugee camp in northern Gaza, after residents were given an hour and a half to evacuate, the United Nations said.

The United Nations added that a residential building in Gaza City was bombed later on Saturday, destroying 50 residential buildings. It is not yet known how many victims fell as a result of this accident.

After US Secretary of State Antony Blinken conveyed concerns about civilian casualties to Israel’s war cabinet, the Israeli military made general plans to issue neighborhood-by-neighborhood evacuation orders to Palestinians ahead of military operations.

But the United Nations, human rights groups and Palestinians said the orders were impractical, especially since all of the blockaded enclave’s 2.3 million residents were already crowded into the southern part of Gaza.

Israel has proposed, but has not yet implemented, a so-called safe zone of 14 square kilometers in southern Gaza, an area slightly larger than London Heathrow Airport. UN officials said safe zones cannot be declared unilaterally in a war zone.

Along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, the Israeli army said an anti-tank missile targeted an Israeli military vehicle, wounding soldiers with shrapnel. The Israeli army responded with artillery.