Residents reported strikes in the Gaza’s central region, the latest focus of the nearly three-month air and ground war that has now engulfed most of the territory.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes in central Gaza killed at least 35 people Sunday, hospital officials said, as fighting raged across the tiny enclave a day after Israel’s prime minister said the war will continue for „many more months,“ resisting international calls for a cease-fire.
The military said Israeli forces were operating in Gaza’s second-largest city, Khan Younis, and residents reported strikes in the central region, the latest focus of the nearly three-month air and ground war that has now engulfed most of the territory.
The war has raised fears of a broader regional conflagration. The U.S. military said Sunday that its forces shot and killed several Iran-backed Houthi rebels when they tried to attack a cargo ship in the Red Sea, an escalation in a maritime conflict linked to the war in Gaza.
Israel says it wants to destroy Hamas‘ governing and military capabilities in Gaza, from where it launched its Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. The militants killed some 1,200 people and took 240 others hostage after breaking through Israel’s extensive border defenses, shattering its sense of security.
Israel’s unprecedented air and ground offensive has killed more than 21,800 Palestinians and wounded more than 55,000 others, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza. The war has sparked a humanitarian crisis, with a quarter of Gaza residents facing starvation, according to the United Nations. Israel’s bombardments have levelled vast swaths of the territory, making parts uninhabitable and displacing some 85% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.Israel presses on
Israel expanded its offensive to central Gaza this week, targeting a belt of dense, built-up communities that house refugees from the war surrounding Israel’s creation in 1948 and their descendants. The fighting has pushed much of the population south, where people have flooded shelters and tent camps near the border with Egypt, even as Israel has also struck those areas.
