Israel said Wednesday that its troops carried out airstrikes and ground attacks in northern, central and southern Gaza, while the U.N. chief warned of the “heartbreaking and catastrophic” effects of the war on Palestinian civilians and a U.S. envoy’s visit to the region included discussion of a potential new temporary cease-fire.
The Israeli military actions included the city of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, where fighting has grown more intense in recent weeks and Israel said it had encircled the area.
An Israeli military warning told people in parts of northern Khan Younis to evacuate, the latest such order that Israel says is meant to protect civilians from the fighting. But with the war moving farther south, and nearly all of the population having fled their homes, there are fewer and fewer safe places for civilians to go.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the evacuation order affected an area with 88,000 residents in addition to an estimated 425,000 displaced people sheltering in schools and other sites. The area is also home to 20% of the “remaining partially functioning hospitals across the Gaza Strip,” the agency said.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the U.N. Security Council that Gaza’s entire population “is enduring destruction at a scale and speed without parallel in recent history.”
The White House said Tuesday that Middle East envoy Brett McGurk was in Cairo as part of the latest efforts to secure a temporary cease-fire that would include mechanisms for releasing hostages held by Hamas in Gaza as well as freeing Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
"The conversations are very sober and serious about trying to get another hostage deal in place," John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Council, told reporters.
In late November, about 100 of the 240 hostages Hamas seized in the militants’ Oct. 7 shock attack on Israel were released during a weeklong cease-fire in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. But none of the estimated 130 or more remaining hostages in Gaza has been freed since then and authorities believe two dozen or so of them have since died or been killed.
Israel vowed to destroy Hamas, which governs Gaza and has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, United Kingdom and European Union, after its militants killed about 1,200 people in an October attack, according to Israeli tallies.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says at least 25,490 Palestinians have been killed in the war, many of them women and children. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and Hamas fighters in its tally of those who have been killed.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
