Several hundred of these are patients or displaced people seeking shelter
Israeli soldiers operating in the Gaza Strip amid ongoing battles with Hamas militants. Pic/AP
Israeli forces battled Palestinian militants Wednesday near the main hospital in Gaza’s second-largest city of Khan Younis, where medics said hundreds of patients and thousands of displaced people were unable to leave because of the fighting.
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Medics say hundreds of patients and thousands of displaced people were unable to leave the main hospital in Khan Younis because of the fighting Wednesday. The Israeli military said its forces were battling militants there after encircling the city the day before.
Israel has ordered residents to leave a swath of downtown Khan Younis that includes Nasser and two smaller hospitals as it pushes ahead with its 3-month-old offensive against Hamas. The UN’s humanitarian office said the area was home to 88,000 Palestinians and was hosting another 425,000 displaced by fighting elsewhere.
The aid group Doctors Without Borders said its staff was trapped inside Nasser Hospital with some 850 patients and thousands of displaced people because the surrounding roads were inaccessible or too dangerous. Nasser Hospital is one of only two hospitals in southern Gaza that can still treat critically ill patients, the group said. Gaza’s Health Ministry also said the hospital had been isolated.
Thousands fled south from Khan Younis on Tuesday toward the town of Rafah. The UN says some 1.5 million people—around two-thirds of Gaza’s population—are crowded in tent camps.
US targets militia sites in Iraq, Yemen
The US military struck three facilities in Iraq and two anti-ship missiles in Yemen operated by Iranian-backed militias that have attacked US personnel and ships in the region as it tries to keep the Israel-Hamas war from spilling into a wider conflict. Both the strikes in Iraq and Yemen late on Tuesday targeted sites allegedly involved in the attacks against US forces in Iraq and Syria and were threatening US military and merchant ships in the Red Sea. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, ”These precision strikes are in direct response to a series of escalatory attacks by Iranian-sponsored militias.”
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