DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (TIP): : Israeli troops launched a new assault August 9 into the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, targeting Hamas fighters who the military claims still operate there despite repeated offensives, as American, Qatari and Egyptian mediators renewed their push for Israel and Hamas to reach a cease-fire deal.
Israeli evacuation orders triggered yet another exodus of Palestinians from the heavily destroyed eastern districts of Khan Younis, where many had just returned less than two weeks ago — after the Israeli military’s last incursion into the city in July.
A wave of Israeli airstrikes in the southern city Friday killed at least 21 Palestinians, medics at the city’s Nasser Hospital said. Israeli bombardment also continued to pound central Gaza on Friday, with the bodies of eight Palestinians — all women and children — arriving at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital from a barrage of airstrikes that hit the town of Deir al-Balah and Nuseirat refugee camp.
With tensions running high along the Israel-Lebanon border, an Israeli drone strike on Friday crashed into an SUV in the Lebanese city of Sidon, killing a Hamas official identified as Samer al-Haj on the main road to the southern port city, Lebanon’s state media reported.
The explosion engulfed al-Haj’s car in flames just outside the sprawling Palestinian refugee camp of Ein al-Hilweh, where Lebanese media reported that he oversaw security matters. Israel confirmed it targeted al-Haj, describing him as a senior Hamas commander and accusing him of recruiting militants to attack Israel as well as directing rocket launches.
In the Gaza Strip, one of the airstrikes in Khan Younis hit the home of the Abu Moamar family, killing a Palestine TV journalist, his wife and three daughters.
Another strike smashed into tents housing displaced people in Mawasi, a costal community just west of Khan Younis that the Israeli military has designated as a humanitarian zone, killing a journalist for the Hamas-run Al Aqsa TV channel and five others. A third airstrike targeted a car in Khan Younis.
Thousands had fled the city Thursday, carrying essentials like small gas cylinders, mattresses, tents, backpacks and blankets.
It’s at least the third time that Israeli forces have launched a major incursion into Khan Younis, where Israeli and American officials have said they believe Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ newly named top leader and one of the architects of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, could be hiding. Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, pledged allegiance to Sinwar as its new leader and promised to carry out his decisions. (AP)