TRANSCRIPT
Intense Israeli air strikes have hit the south of the Gaza Strip, with troops and tanks pressing a ground campaign against Hamas after the end of a seven-day ceasefire.
Residents of around a quarter of the city of Khan Younis have been ordered to leave for designated "safe zones", in leaflet drops and a post by Israeli forces on social media platform X.
But locals say areas they had been told to go to were also coming under fire, with many also unable to access the information after Palestinian telecoms company PalTel announced a near-total communications blackout following Israeli strikes.
This man says he has been left no choice but to shelter at the already overcrowded Muwasi area, where people have resorted to sleeping in makeshift shelters and tents.
“Our first demand is to return to our homes in Gaza, and then Khan Younis. Our second demand is them to offer us help and aid, food, water and other things.”
The U-N estimates 1.87 million people, around three-quarters of Gaza's population of 2.3 million, have been internally displaced since Israel's retaliatory campaign following Hamas' October 7 attack on southern Israel.
There are fears military operations, with Israel already in control of the now-devastated north, could render larger parts of Gaza unliveable.
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari has justified the new offensives, saying air and ground forces have succeeded in eliminating what he describes as "terrorists and terrorist infrastructures".
“IDF forces in the Gaza Strip continue to expand ground operations. We attacked today with fighter jets in the entire Gaza Strip. Significant and very precise strikes based on intelligence. In addition, we are expanding the ground operation against Hamas' centres of gravity everywhere in the Gaza Strip.”
Hamas' Health Ministry says around 800 people have died since the collapse of the truce last week, bringing the number reported to have been killed to at least 15,800, around two thirds of them women and children, with over 41,000 reported injured.
Israel says 1,200 people, mainly civilians, were killed in Hamas' attacks on Southern Israel on October 7th.
Amid renewed fighting in the south, Israel's largest ally, the United States, has issued its strongest warning yet to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, facing increased criticism at home amid the restarting of a corruption trial.
US State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller has defended Israel's campaign against Hamas, but says the US is "watching closely" after "too many" civilian deaths in Gaza.
“I have not seen evidence that they are intentionally killing civilians. We believe that far too many civilians have been killed. But again, this goes back to the underlying problem of this entire situation, which is that Hamas has embedded itself inside civilians, inside civilian homes, inside mosques, in schools, in churches.”
The renewed fighting comes after the end of a week-long ceasefire, which saw 110 of the more than 240 hostages taken by Hamas on October the 7th, including 80 Israelis, exchanged for 240 Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons, as well as more desperately-needed aid enter Gaza.
Mediators Qatar, Egypt and the U-S say they are making efforts to reach a longer pause, amid concerns fighting could spill over into the wider region, including in Lebanon where exchanges of fire between the IDF and Hezbollah have continued.
United States National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has held Hamas responsible for a breakdown in negotiations.
“Right now, Hamas is refusing to release civilian women who should have been part of the agreement. And it is that refusal by Hamas that has caused the end of the hostage agreement and therefore the end to the pause in hostilities.”
U-S officials have accused Hamas of not releasing some female hostages because it does not want them to reveal their experiences in captivity.
This comes after Israel held an event at the United Nations in New York concerning sexual violence allegedly perpetrated against women during Hamas' attacks, which Hamas has denied.
Former U-S Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has told the event the international community needs to more strongly condemn the use of sexual violence in warfare.
“As a global community we must respond to weaponised sexual violence, wherever it happens, with absolute condemnation. There can be no justifications and no excuses. Rape as a weapon of war is a crime against humanity.”
Amid reports of chaos at hospitals in southern Gaza after heavy bombing, the International Committee of the Red Cross has issued its own strong condemnation.
Speaking from the region following reports hospitals in northern Gaza had lost their entire surgical capacity, ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric Egger has said the international community's inability to bring an end to the conflict represents a "moral failure".
“We are facing a situation here that will not be healed by sending in more trucks. We need to provide protection to the civilians in Gaza, to the women and children, to the elderly, people that I saw today that have nowhere to go. The majority of people I met today have been displaced several times. I met people who have lost limbs because they needed to evacuate between treatments and they lost a hand or a foot because they couldn't be treated in the hospital where they arrived first. We have to find solutions to this.”
