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Israel ordered residents to leave the centre of the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis on Saturday and bombed the enclave from north to south after the United States vetoed the U.N. Security Council to shield its ally from a demand for a ceasefire.
An Arabic-speaking Israeli spokesman posted a map on Platform X showing six numbered areas in Khan Younis that residents were asked to evacuate "urgently." The map included parts of the city center that had not been subject to such orders before.
Israel issued similar warnings last week before storming eastern parts of the city. Residents said they feared the new evacuation orders could herald another attack.
Al Jazeera correspondent said that the Israeli occupation army launched new raids on the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip at dawn on Sunday, and targeted heavy artillery shelling east of Khan Yunis, and large explosions were heard in the area.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that the Israeli occupation army targeted on Sunday the Jordanian field hospital in the city with a shell that caused damage to its contents.
Zainab Khalil, 57, who was displaced with 30 relatives and friends in Khan Younis, near Jalal Street, where the Israeli occupation forces ordered residents to leave, said: "It may be a matter of time before they enter our area as well. We could hear the shelling all night."
"We don't sleep at night, we stay awake, we try to put the children to sleep, we stay awake from the fear of bombing the place and we have to run carrying the children. In the daytime, another tragedy begins: how do we feed the children?"
The bodies of martyrs and wounded poured into the night at Nasser al-Makdas hospital in Khan Yunis. A paramedic rushed from the ambulance carrying the body of a girl in a pink uniform.
Inside, wounded children were crying and writhing in pain on the ground as nurses rushed to calm them down. Outside, the bodies were lined up and wrapped in white shrouds.
Targeting hospitals
Footage from inside the Jaffa hospital in Deir al-Balah showed extensive damage from a strike on a nearby mosque. The ruins of the mosque could be seen through the shattered windows.
Medical workers in northern Gaza, where some of the fiercest fighting is taking place, have accused Israel of targeting hospitals and ambulances. A paramedic working in Gaza City's Shujaiya neighborhood told Reuters that ambulance crews were often unable to respond to calls from the wounded.
The paramedic, who asked not to be identified, added: "We have tried before in the past days to go there and our teams came under Israeli fire."
Mohammed Salha, a director at al-Awda hospital, said Israeli forces surrounded the hospital for days with tanks, shooting at those who tried to enter or leave. He said they shot dead a woman in the street and a hospital worker standing at a window.
The Health Ministry said Israeli forces shot dead two medical staff inside Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza on Saturday.
As stated in the daily press conference of the government media office in Gaza, "The occupation snipers besieging Al-Awda Hospital killed two health workers and killed and wounded many pregnant women when they arrived at the hospital to give birth."
The Jaffa hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza said it had stopped operating on Friday due to heavy damage when Israel bombed a nearby mosque.
Families in the northern Gaza Strip posted messages online appealing to emergency crews to enter Gaza City.
Unconditional U.S. support
Unconditional U.S. support has encouraged Israel to continue its violent offensive on the Gaza Strip, where the number of martyrs in the enclave has exceeded 17,700, mostly children and women, and about 49,<> wounded, with thousands more missing and believed to have died under the rubble.
In a U.N. vote on Friday, 13 Security Council members backed a draft resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, but Washington vetoed the draft resolution and Britain abstained.
Washington continues to support Israel in its insistence that a ceasefire will only benefit the Islamist group Hamas, with US Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Robert Wood telling the Security Council, "We do not support this resolution's call for an unsustainable ceasefire that will only sow the seeds of the next war."
President Joe Biden's administration has also used emergency powers under the Arms Export Control Act to sell about 14,<> tank shells to Israel without congressional review.
The missiles are part of a larger sale, Reuters revealed in a report on Friday, which said the value of the package that the Biden administration is asking Congress to approve exceeds $500 million and includes 45,<> shells of Israeli Merkava tanks.
Source: Al Jazeera + Reuters