Hospital district battered in fighting around Gaza's Khan Younis
City encircled by Israeli forces and under almost non-stop aerial and ground fire
Israeli tanks battered areas around two hospitals in Gaza's main southern city, Khan Younis, on Thursday, forcing displaced people to scramble for safe shelter, residents said, in an escalating offensive Israel says is targeting Hamas militants.
Gaza health officials said at least 50 Palestinians had been killed in Khan Younis in the past 24 hours, including two children in an Israeli airstrike that hit a home.
Most of the Gaza Strip's 2.3 million people are now squeezed into Khan Younis and towns just north and south of it, after being driven out of its northern half earlier in Israel's military campaign, now in its fourth month.
Khan Younis is encircled by Israeli armoured forces and under almost non-stop aerial and ground fire, residents say, and a huge mushroom-like column of smoke billowed skyward from areas of Israeli military operations on Thursday.
Palestinian medics said Israeli tanks had cut off and were shelling targets around the city's two main still-functioning hospitals, Nasser and Al-Amal, trapping medical teams, patients and displaced people sheltering inside or nearby.
"The vicinity of Nasser Medical Complex is subjected to intense artillery shelling, and Israeli forces are firing heavily in the open areas and towards the buildings, putting the lives of everyone inside at risk," said Ashraf Al-Qidra, a spokesperson for the Gaza health ministry.
Israel says Hamas militants use hospital premises as cover for bases, something the Islamist group and medical staff deny.
The Israeli military's siege of Khan Younis's main hospitals, in what it calls an escalating campaign to eliminate militants in Hamas's main south Gaza stronghold, has made it nearly impossible for rescue crews to reach the wounded or collect the dead.
On Wednesday, the United Nations said Israeli tanks struck a large UN compound in Gaza sheltering displaced Palestinians, killing at least nine people and wounding 75. Israel denied its forces were responsible, suggesting Hamas might have launched the shelling. It said it was reviewing the incident.
Israel said Hamas had "command and control centres, outposts and security headquarters" in the vicinity, which it described as "a dense area" with civilians, as well as the premises of several hospitals where it said militants were active.
Friday deadline to flee UN compound
On Thursday, tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians sheltering in the compound prepared to flee to Rafah, 15 kilometres away on Gaza's southern edge, after Israeli tank forces nearby ordered all civilians inside to leave, UN officials said.
Israeli forces had set a deadline of Friday at 5 p.m. for the UN compound to be evacuated, said Juliette Touma, chief spokesperson for the UN Palestinian refugee agency. Over 30,000 people were packed inside the compound, she estimated.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
At least 25,700 people have been killed in Gaza, one of the world's most densely populated places, Palestinian health officials say, with large tracts of the heavily built-up enclave flattened by Israeli bombing.
An estimated 1,200 people were killed during the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, including Israeli security forces and civilians, along with foreign nationals, according to the Israeli government. About 250 others were taken hostage.
The Israeli military said on Thursday it had killed more than 9,000 Hamas militants and lost 220 soldiers in the 3½-month-old war. Hamas has dismissed Israel's figures on militant deaths.
In its latest update, the Israeli military said forces had carried out raids with precision airstrikes and snipers to take out multiple Hamas command centres and militant emplacements in Khan Younis, including the Al Amal district.
"In close-quarters combat, the soldiers eliminated the terrorists, and various weapons were discovered in the process," it said in a statement.
Ceasefire appeals
Despite international appeals for a ceasefire to spare civilians, Israel has vowed to continue its operation until Hamas has been eradicated and all hostages freed.
Hamas says any deal must hinge on Israel ending its offensive and siege and withdrawing from the Gaza Strip.
Mediated talks on a month-long truce that could see hostages freed in swaps for Palestinian prisoners in Israel have resumed but have snagged on the two sides' differences over how to bring an end to the war, sources told Reuters.
The fate of the Hamas-held hostages remains a pressing political issue in Israel, with families loudly advocating for their release.
On Thursday, a small group of people — which the Times of Israel newspaper reported included relatives of hostages — held a demonstration at the Kerem Shalom crossing, where aid trucks have a path to cross from Israel to Gaza.
Gaza's conflict threatens to destabilize the Middle East, stoking hostilities ranging from the Israeli-occupied West Bank to the Israel-Lebanon border region, Syria, Iraq and Red Sea shipping lanes crucial to international trade.
In the West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry that exercises limited self-rule there said on Thursday at least 370 people had been killed in the course of Israeli army raids or clashes with Palestinian militants since Oct. 7.
With files from CBC News