Key events
Eight Palestinians killed by continued Israeli attacks on Khan Younis and Rafah – reports
Eight Palestinians have been killed and dozens more wounded after Israeli forces again bombarded several areas of Khan Younis and Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Reuters reports health officials in the territory have said.
Reuters have spoken via a chat app to a 55-year-old in Gaza, who told the news agency he had been displaced six times since 7 October by Israeli attacks and evacuation orders.
“Where will we go?” he said. “Every time people go back to their homes and begin to rebuild some of their lives even on the rubble of their houses, the occupation sends the tanks back to destroy what is left.”
Here are some more images of the forced displacement overnight of Palestinians within the Gaza Strip after Israel’s military issued instructions for people to move, ahead of another anticipated ground assault on Khan Younis.
Israel’s military has issued two operational updates on its official Telegram channel during the morning, claiming to struck targets in Khan Younis from where fire emerged yesterday, and to be continuing operations in Shejaiya, Rafah and central Gaza.
On Monday, it said “approximately 20 projectiles were launched from the area of Khan Younis toward Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip”. The IDF says that as a consequence it “struck terror targets in the area from which the projectiles were fired, including a weapons storage facility, operational centres, and additional terrorist infrastructure sites.”
Yesterday the Al-Quds Brigades claimed responsibity for volley of fire, saying “We bombed the settlements along the Gaza Strip with a missile barrage in response to the crimes of the Zionist enemy against our Palestinian people.”
The claims have not been independently verified.
Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir al-Balah for Al Jazeera says that it has been “quite difficult for residents” in the eastern area of Khan Younis over the last 24 hours. He writes:
A new wave of enforced displacement is pushing residents from the eastern parts of Khan Younis into the central and western parts of the city, including the al-Mawasi “evacuation zone”, that has been largely unsafe as it was repeatedly bombed. The lack of fuel means what people are doing right now is either walking for miles or using animals to pull carts to leave.
The mother of rescued hostage Noa Argamani has died in Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv, Israeli media reports. Liora Argamani had been terminally ill, and was reunited with her daughter last month.
Argamani, 25, was abducted from the Nova music festival on 7 October. She was returned to Israel after a military operation early in June. Three other hostages – Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40 – were rescued at the same time.
The hostages and missing families forum said in a statement:
Liora struggled with cancer for a long time and while Noa was in captivity she said that her last wish was to see her daughter before she died. In the last few days she had the privilege of being with her daughter Noa and other family members.
Liora Argamani was 61.
Here are some of the images sent overnight across the news wires from Khan Younis in Gaza which has been bombarded again by Israel, with reports saying people have been killed and injured in the Israeli attack.
Overnight Israel confirmed the death of another soldier during its operation inside the Gaza Strip. It takes the official casualty tally to 318 dead since ground operations began.
Israel reports that 4,021 of its troops have been wounded since 7 October. 250 IDF members are currently in hospital, with 31 of those considered to be in a serious condition.
It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Palestinian news agency Wafa has reported that “a number of Palestinians were killed and others were injured Monday night” by Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip without giving specific numbers.
Al Jazeera reports that verified video shows “the arrival of the three bodies and six injured people at Nasser hospital”. It reports that the wounded suffered an additional delay to their treatment as they were unable to use the European hospital closest to them due to Israeli evacuation orders.
It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the Israel-Gaza war and the wider crisis in the Middle East.
Israel has carried out fresh strikes in and around Khan Younis after ordering a mass evacuation of much of the scity. Eight people were killed and more than 30 were wounded, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent and a medical source, reported Agence France-Presse.
The strikes came after a rare rocket barrage on Monday claimed by the militant group Islamic Jihad.
The Israeli military said artillery had “struck the sources of the fire” and that about “20 projectiles were identified crossing from the area of Khan Younis”, most of which were intercepted. It reported no casualties.
The latest news on the ground came after the evacuation order spurred UN secretary general António Guterres to say “no place is safe in Gaza” for Palestinian civilians.
“It’s another stop in this deadly circular movement that the population in Gaza has to undergo on a regular basis,” Guterres said in a statement calling for a ceasefire.
Much of Khan Younis was destroyed in a long assault earlier this year, but large numbers of Palestinians had moved back to escape another Israeli offensive in Gaza’s southernmost city, Rafah.
The order suggests Khan Younis will be the latest target of Israel’s raids into parts of Gaza it had previously invaded in the war, as it pursues regrouping Hamas militants.
As night fell, streams of civilians left on foot alongside a steady flow of vehicles as people began making their way out of the evacuation zone.
More on that in a moment, first here’s a summary of the day’s other main events.
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The head of the Gaza Strip’s biggest hospital has accused Israel of torturing him and other detainees, after his release following seven months in Israeli prisons and detention facilities. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, the director of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, was among dozens of Palestinians freed and returned to Gaza on Monday, according to Israeli authorities. The doctor, who had been held by Israel without charge since his arrest at his workplace in November, said he and other prisoners were subjected to “almost daily torture” while in detention in Israel.
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The release of Abu Salmiya prompted a political row in Israel, with the country’s most senior officials denying prior knowledge of the move. Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s far-right national security minister, who controls the police and prison service, said the release of Abu Salmiya and others constituted “security negligence” and blamed the defence ministry, which denied responsibility. The opposition leader, Yair Lapid, said Abu Salmiya’s release was another sign of the government’s “lawlessness and dysfunction”.
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Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu soon after criticised the release as a “serious mistake”. Netanyahu said he had ordered the Shin Bet intelligence agency to conduct an investigation into the release and provide him with the results by Tuesday. The decision was made “without the knowledge of the political echelon”, he added.
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Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency said it had decided on the release with the Israeli military “to free up places in detention centres”. The agency said it “opposed the release of terrorists” who had taken part in attacks on Israeli civilians “so it was decided to free several Gaza detainees who represent a lesser danger”.
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The Israel Broadcasting Authority has quoted the country’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, as saying the Israeli army needs 10,000 additional soldiers immediately. According to Al Jazeera, Gallant told the foreign affairs and defence committee that 4,800 of those required can be recruited from Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community, which makes up about 13% of people in Israel.
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The Palestinian health authority said a woman and a child were killed by Israeli security forces during a raid into Tulkarm in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Palestinian news agency Wafa named those killed as Muhammad Ali Sarhan, 15, and Nisreen Khaled Damiri, 47.
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Yemen’s Houthis said that they conducted four military operations targeting four ships in the Red, Arabian and Mediterranean Seas as well as the Indian Ocean “linked to the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel.” The Guardian was not immediately able to verify the claims.
