Israel-Hamas war: Amid an escalation in the fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, two tank rounds struck a United Nations shelter in Khan Younis, resulting in the deaths of at least 12 people, said UN and health officials. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said the death toll could be higher and condemned the attack as "a blatant disregard of basic rules of war", even though Israel denied carrying out the attack.
"The compound is a clearly marked 'UN facility' and its coordinates were shared with Israeli authorities, as we do for all our facilities," said Lazzarini, while Thomas White, director of Gaza affairs for UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said at least 75 people were injured in the tank attack on Wednesday. UN officials also said humanitarians are struggling to provide displaced people with basic services such as food, medical support, shelter, water and sanitation amid the war.
Although UN officials did not directly blame Israel, they said the shelter was hit by tanks, which is only owned by Israel in Gaza in the current situation. The attack, which the UN said hit a vocational training centre housing 30,000 displaced people in Khan Younis, southern Gaza's main city, prompted a rare outright condemnation from the United States.
US condemns attack
However, Israel denied its forces were responsible for the attack and suggested Hamas may have launched the shelling. In a statement, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) described the Khan Younis area as a base of Hamas fighters and acknowledged fighting taking place near large numbers of civilians. It later ruled out that its forces had struck the centre after an examination of its operational systems, although the review was still underway to determine if the attack was conducted by Hamas.
In Washington, US State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said, "We deplore today's attack on the UN's Khan Younis training centre". "Civilians must be protected, and the protected nature of UN facilities must be respected. And humanitarian workers must be protected so that they can continue providing civilians with the lifesaving humanitarian assistance that they need," Patel said.
"We continue to raise with the – our Israeli partners the need and the responsibility that they have to protect UN facilities and to protect humanitarian workers so that they can continue to carry out and conduct the lifesaving work that they’re doing in the region," the spokesperson added.
The development came as Israeli forces pushed deep into western Khan Younis in Gaza, with an air, sea and land bombardment that included storming a hospital and arresting medical staff, Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al Qidra told Reuters. Israel launched an offensive last week to capture Khan Younis, which it now says is the principal headquarters of the Hamas militants responsible for the October 7 attacks on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people.
Hours after the attack as night fell, UN staff were still unable to reach the area and all communications were shut down. Residents said that Israeli announcements warning them to leave the area came only after the operation was under way and the main road out already shut.
Israel said that Hamas has "command and control centers, Hamas outposts and Hamas security headquarters" in the area. "Dismantling Hamas' military framework in western Khan Younis is the heart of the logic behind the operation. It is a dense area and an area that consists of civilians, it is a place that requires very specific methods of action and precise operations. There is an area with shelters, there are several hospitals, several sensitive sites. We have seen terrorists use these sites," said the IDF.
Dire situation in Gaza
At least 25,700 Gazans have been killed since October 7, Gaza health authorities said in an update on Monday. International concern has mounted over the Palestinian death toll from Israel's assault on the densely populated enclave and a humanitarian crisis afflicting hundreds of thousands of people. As many as 210 Palestinians were killed in the last 24 hours in the Palestinian enclave.
Since Israel's ground offensive began in late October, Washington has raised concerns and asked Israel for information about incidents, but has rarely been openly critical of a specific Israeli action. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead until Israel crushes the ruling Hamas militant group and wins the freedom of over 100 hostages held captive in Gaza.
The Israeli military suffered its deadliest single-dayattack when 24 troops were killed in central Gaza, a major setback for Israel that could add to mounting calls for an immediate ceasefire. Israel has proposed a two-month pause in the ongoing fighting in the Gaza Strip, in exchange for the release of all hostages in the Palestinian enclave, to Hamas through Qatari and Egyptian mediators as part of a multi-phase deal, according to a report by Axios.
Hamas is believed to have suffered heavy losses but has continued to put up stiff resistance in the face of one of the deadliest air and ground offensives in recent history. Militants are still battling Israeli forces across the territory and launching rockets into Israel.
(with inputs from Reuters)
