Israel orders evacuation of former Gaza safe area; U.N. aid convoy fired on
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Washington, where the political turmoil was creating further uncertainty about U.S.-Israeli relations.
The Washington Post, July 22, 2024
JERUSALEM — Israel’s army intensified military operations in southern Gaza on Monday, sending Palestinian casualties streaming into already buckling hospitals, as thousands of civilians fled an area that the army had previously designated a safe zone.
The operation, which Israel’s army said was targeting Hamas militants who had fired rockets from the area, came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Washington, where the city’s political turmoil threatens to roil U.S.-Israeli relations at a crucial moment for the war in Gaza.
As the prime minister boarded his plane, the United Nations accused Israeli troops of firing on one of its aid convoys a day earlier as it traveled an agreed-upon route to northern Gaza. Past attacks by Israeli forces on aid workers have strained relations between Netanyahu’s government and the Biden administration, which has provided Israel with a steady stream of weapons throughout the war.
After nine months of conflict, relief groups describe Gaza as one of the most dangerous places to operate in the world, as more than 1 million civilians shelter in tents from the summer heat. Famine is looming, according to a U.N.-backed assessment, and Israel’s Health Ministry said Friday that it has detected a strain of the polio virus in Gaza’s sewage as a sanitation crisis mounts.
As part of Israel’s operation Monday, its military ordered the evacuation of an eastern sector of the city of Khan Younis. The orders also included an area within the city’s Mawasi neighborhood, which was previously within the boundaries of a designated safe zone for displaced people. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering in the safe zone area.
Images from inside Gaza show thousands of people clutching their possessions as they push through streets crammed with people and debris, seeking to escape areas that Israel said would soon see military action.
Follow World news
In a statement, Hamas’s military wing said it had fired upon three Israeli tanks and a bulldozer in the Bani Suhaila area of Khan Younis, suggesting that fierce battles were raging there. The Gaza Health Ministry said 70 people have been killed and 200 wounded so far on Monday. The local civil defense force said members of one of its ambulance crews were wounded as they tried to reach casualties at the Bani Suhaila roundabout.
GET CAUGHT UP
Stories to keep you informed
In Nasser Hospital, one of the most functional remaining medical facilities in the Gaza Strip, casualties streamed in and doctors did what they could. Many of the patients were children, and some arrived by themselves, medics said. Javid Abdelmoneim, a medical team leader for Doctors Without Borders, said he had treated women with burns and bodies riddled with shrapnel, as well as a young boy with “horrific” facial injuries.
It was the hospital’s fourth mass casualty event of the week, and this time, Abdelmoneim said, the staff’s families were affected. “Two of them were crying as they received calls from their family. They were hearing the sound of violence outside their homes, but the families couldn’t leave,” he said.
At one point, another doctor “turned white as a ghost,” Abdelmoneim recalled. The man had recognized one of the most grievously wounded. “I was working with that doctor yesterday,” the man said.
Out on the streets of Khan Younis, Iman al-Zeer, 34, a mother of four, reached by phone, said she was unable to leave due to heavy gunfire.
Zeer said she could hear the sound of intense shelling and airstrikes close by. “We were listening to the sounds of the screams of people as they fled,” she said. “Whenever we try to move, we are shot at. It’s impossible for us to move, because we would have to walk toward Bani Suhaila.”
Also Monday, Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) that aids Palestinian refugees, said that Israeli forces fired upon one of the organization’s convoys a day earlier as it waited for the Israeli army to green-light its onward movement to the battle-scarred north.
“The teams were traveling in clearly marked UN armoured cars & wearing UN vests. One vehicle received at least five bullets,” Lazzarini said in a message posted to X. “Those responsible must be held accountable.”
The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment about the incident. Louise Wateridge, a spokeswoman for UNRWA, said that, by chance, she had been sitting in the front passenger seat of the vehicle that was fired upon. The bullets appeared to have come from an area of IDF operations to the east, she said, and left fragments on the back seat.
“We were incredibly lucky that there was nobody in the back seat. This is the first mission I’ve ever been on in the Gaza Strip where there was nobody in the back seat. But it shouldn’t come down to luck,” she said.
She added that there were no visible military targets in the area and that the volley of bullets cracked through the air after a displaced Palestinian mother passed the vehicle, carrying a baby in her arms while three young children trudged behind her in the baking heat.
“They were there really moments before,” Wateridge said. “They would have been in the firing line, and for what?”
More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel’s military operation began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Netanyahu’s tense relationship with President Biden has deteriorated greatly in recent months as Israel has defied numerous White House entreaties to increase the flow of humanitarian aid in Gaza and do more to protect civilians. The administration put a hold on 2,000-pound bombs to Israel in May, citing their use in populated areas.
Israeli military officials say the most intense phase of their war against Hamas is nearing an end. But on the ground in Gaza, Palestinian and foreign medics say they have witnessed a surge in mass casualty attacks by Israeli forces in recent weeks. The casualties have overwhelmed hospitals that could barely cope with the sheer number of unhealed wounds they were treating from previous attacks, aid groups say.
Analysts cast the shift as part of an Israeli strategy to pressure Hamas in ongoing diplomatic negotiations aimed at securing a cease-fire and the release of the more than 100 hostages still held by the group. As U.S.-backed talks in Cairo are reportedly gaining momentum, the Biden administration is pressing a reluctant Netanyahu to accept a deal. He denies that he is obstructing the process.
Netanyahu has been accused by critics of prolonging the war for his own political benefit, a charge he denies. He remains adamant that Israel must fight until Hamas has been destroyed, a goal his own generals have said is unachievable.
U.S. administration officials denied, before Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race, that Netanyahu had been significantly emboldened by criticism of the president’s physical ability to do his job. But they acknowledged that Biden’s mounting problems have coincided with a hardening of the prime minister’s position. Netanyahu recently came forward with last-minute demands that U.S. negotiators feared would stymie the Cairo talks, according to diplomats familiar with the discussions.
The Israel Defense Forces said Monday that two more hostages, Alex Dancyg, 76, and Yagev Buchshtab, 35, have been killed in the Gaza Strip. “The circumstances of their deaths in Hamas captivity are being investigated by all relevant professional bodies,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari said. “The IDF and other security agencies will continue to support the families of the hostages as needed.”
The Hostages Families Forum, an umbrella group representing loved ones of the roughly 250 hostages kidnapped by Hamas and other armed groups on Oct. 7, described the news as “devastating.” Buchshtab, it said, “was a humble and unassuming man who loved life” in the kibbutz from which he was taken. “Hostages who were held captive with him reported that [Dancyg] spent his time in captivity giving history lectures to fellow captives.”
“Their death in captivity is a tragic reflection of the consequences of foot-dragging in negotiations. We reiterate our demand to the Israeli government and its leader: Approve the deal immediately.”