GAZA: The Zionist entity’s army on Monday sent dozens of tanks into southern Gaza as part of "aggressive” action against Hamas and its allies in the besieged territory, despite global concern over mounting civilian deaths. Weeks after the Zionist entity deployed ground forces in the north of the Gaza Strip, the army has been airdropping leaflets in parts of the south, telling Palestinians to flee to other areas.
Gaza’s health ministry said nearly 15,900 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory, about 70 percent of them women and children — a toll that has sparked global alarm and mass demonstrations. Tanks, armored personnel carriers and bulldozers were seen Monday near the southern city of Khan Yunis, which is crowded with internally displaced Palestinians, witnesses told AFP.
Amin Abu Hawli, 59, said the Zionist vehicles were two kilometers inside Gaza in the village of Al-Qarara, while Moaz Mohammed, 34, said Zionist tanks were moving down the strip’s main north-south highway, the Salah al-Din road. The military was trying to cut the road between Deir al-Balah in central Gaza and Khan Yunis, "firing bullets and tank shells at cars and people trying to move through the area,” Mohammed said.
The advance of Zionist forces meant that in the north and east of the city, civilians could no longer travel along the Salah al-Din road, which "constitutes a battlefield”, the military warned. "It is extremely dangerous to go there.” Full-scale fighting resumed Friday after the collapse of a week-long truce brokered by Qatar with support from the United States and Egypt, during which Hamas and the Zionist entity had exchanged hostages and prisoners.
Air strikes have since intensified in Gaza’s south, said James Elder, a spokesman for the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF. "Despite what has been assured, attacks in the south of Gaza are every bit as vicious as what the north endured,” he posted Monday on X, formerly Twitter. "This is the worst bombardment of the war right now in south Gaza. I am seeing massive child casualties. We have a final warning to save children; and our collective conscience. Somehow, it’s getting worse for children and mothers.”
International Committee of the Red Cross president Mirjana Spoljaric, visiting Gaza, described the suffering as "intolerable”. "I have arrived in Gaza, where people’s suffering is intolerable,” she said on X. "It is unacceptable that civilians have no safe place to go in Gaza, and with a military siege in place there is also no adequate humanitarian response currently possible,” she added in an ICRC statement.
Walaa Abu Libda found shelter at the Al-Aqsa hospital but said her four-year-old daughter remained trapped under rubble. "I don’t know if she is dead or alive,” she said, one of an estimated 1.8 million people displaced in Gaza — roughly three-quarters of the population. The Zionist military said Sunday it had carried out around 10,000 air strikes in total, while more than 11,500 rockets had been fired at the Zionist entity since the war began, government spokesman Eylon Levy said.
The Zionist army said Monday that three more soldiers had been killed in fighting in the northern Gaza Strip, raising the number of troop deaths there to 75. The fatalities brought to 401 the number of Zionist defense personnel killed since Oct 7, among them those killed in the Hamas attacks themselves.
More air strikes rained down on northern Gaza where Hamas’ armed wing reported clashes with Zionist tanks. Rocket salvos were again fired from Gaza towards Zionist territory. In the southern Gazan city of Rafah, resident Abu Jahar Al-Hajj said an air strike near his home felt "like an earthquake”. "The earth shook, and the sound was so loud. Pieces of concrete started falling on us,” he said. The Zionist entity’s ally the United States has intensified calls for the protection of Gaza’s civilians, with Vice President Kamala Harris saying that "too many innocent Palestinians have been killed”.
A White House official said Sunday the United States believes the Zionist entity is "making an effort” to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza. The Zionist entity said that it was not seeking to force Palestinian civilians to permanently leave their homes. "We have asked civilians to evacuate the battlefield and we have provided a designated humanitarian zone inside the Gaza Strip,” military spokesman Jonathan Conricus said, referring to a tiny coastal area of the territory named Al-Mawasi. Any suggestion of Palestinian dispersal is highly contentious in the Arab world as the war that led to the Zionist entity’s creation 75 years ago gave rise to the exodus or forced displacement of 760,000 Palestinians.
The Zionist-occupied West Bank has also seen a surge in violence since October. The Palestinian Authority’s health ministry said two Palestinians had been shot dead in a Zionist raid on the northern West Bank town of Qalqilya, while a man was killed in Qalandia refugee camp. Despite the war, Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial resumed on Monday. Netanyahu is accused of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, allegations he denies. The trial had been suspended after the Oct 7 attacks.