GAZA: Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes killed at least 37 Palestinians near Khan Younis, Gaza medics said on Monday, after Israel issued new orders to evacuate some neighbourhoods following what it said were renewed attacks from those areas.
The Palestinians were killed by tank salvoes in the town of Bani Suhaila and other towns just east of the southern city of Khan Younis, with the area also bombarded by air, they said.
The Gaza health ministry said the dead included several women and children and that dozens of other people had been injured by Israeli fire. The Gaza ministry does not distinguish between militants and civilians in its death tallies.
Around 400,000 people are living in the targeted areas and that dozens of families have begun to leave their houses, Palestinian officials said, adding they were not given time to leave before the Israeli strikes began.
Some families fled on donkey carts, others on foot, carrying mattresses and other belongings. At Nasser Hospital some people stood outside the morgue to bid farewell to dead relatives.
There was no immediate Israeli comment on the strikes east of Khan Younis. In nearby Deir Al-Balah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering, an Israeli air strike hit a tent used by local journalists inside Al-Aqsa Hospital, killing one journalist and wounding two other people, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said.
The new death raises the number of Palestinian journalists killed in the Israeli offensive to 153, it added.
Earlier, an Israeli military statement said the new evacuation orders were given due to renewed Palestinian groups attacks, including rockets launched from the targeted areas in eastern Khan Younis. The orders did not include health institutions, Palestinians said.
The military said it was adjusting the boundaries of a designated humanitarian zone in Al-Mawasi - to the west of Khan Younis - to keep the civilian population away from areas of combat with Palestinian gunmen.
The Gaza Civil Emergency Services said Israel's new orders showed it had downsized the humanitarian-designated areas in southern and central areas, where 1.7 people were sheltering, to 48 square km, from 65 square km in the past. The Palestinians, the United Nations and international relief agencies have said there is no safe place left in Gaza.
Health officials at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis urged residents on Monday to donate blood because of the large number of casualties being rushed into the medical centre.
The death toll among Palestinians in Israel's retaliatory offensive since then had reached at least 39,006 as of Monday, Gaza health authorities said. — Reuters
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