On Tuesday, Israeli leaders acknowledged that their military engaged in the fiercest combat with Palestinian fighters in the besieged Gaza Strip. This came shortly after Hamas announced a series of attacks that resulted in dozens of Israeli casualties, particularly as Israeli forces targeted a building where an Israeli army battalion was fortified.
Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, the Chief of Staff of the Israeli army, announced that Israeli forces are now encircling Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, marking a new phase in the war after a seven-day pause to allow some hostages to return. Halevi stated, "After sixty days since the war began, our forces are now surrounding the Khan Younis area in southern Gaza." He added, "We have secured several Hamas strongholds in northern Gaza, and now we are targeting their strongholds in the south."
General Yaron Finkelman, the commander of the Israeli army's Southern Command, remarked that his forces are experiencing the fiercest day of combat since the ground operation in Gaza began at the end of October, as reported by Reuters. Palestinian factions confirmed this, noting "fierce battles" across multiple fronts, from Jabalia in the north to Shujaiya neighborhood in eastern Gaza and to eastern Khan Younis in the south of the Strip.
The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, reported that their fighters are engaged in intense battles "at point-blank range" in Khan Younis. Videos circulated showing their fighters firing light and medium weapons at Israeli forces, as well as launching RPGs and mortars.
The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, stated that their fighters destroyed or damaged 24 Israeli military vehicles and that their snipers killed or injured eight Israeli soldiers in ongoing clashes in various areas of Khan Younis. Health sector officials reported that at least 45 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on homes in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. Eyad al-Jabri, director of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, stated that the hospital received 45 fatalities due to the Israeli bombing of three families' homes in the last hour.
After days of urging residents to flee the area, Israeli forces dropped new leaflets on Tuesday instructing people to stay in shelters during the attack. Heavy rains turned the streets of Gaza into mud, prompting the Israeli army to consider diverting water channels into tunnels, saying, "This is cheaper and ensures better access to leadership underground." Meanwhile, residents of Gaza, sleeping in plastic tents on the streets due to the extensive destruction of buildings, focused on how to shelter children from the rain and cold.
Elon Levy, a spokesperson for the Israeli government, stated on Tuesday in a briefing to journalists, "We are moving into the second phase now. It will be a difficult phase militarily." The United States, a close ally of Israel, urged it to minimize civilian harm in the next phase of the Gaza war. Israel claims that the responsibility for civilian casualties lies with Hamas fighters, as they operate among civilians, including through underground tunnels that can only be destroyed with massive bombs. Hamas denies fighting among civilians.
The Israeli bombardment has led to the displacement of 80% of Gaza's 2.3 million residents from their homes, with most moving south. The population density in Gaza is higher than that of London, and the overcrowded southern areas are now hosting three times their usual population.
At Al-Nasser Hospital, the main hospital in Khan Younis, injured individuals arrived in ambulances, private cars, trucks, and even horse-drawn carts after what survivors described as an airstrike targeting a school used as a shelter for displaced persons. Inside one of the hospital wards, the injured occupied nearly every inch of the floor as medics rushed from one patient to another while their relatives wept. A doctor carried the body of a boy in athletic clothing to a corner while blood pooled around his outstretched arms. On the floor next to the body lay a boy and a girl surrounded by bandages and IV stands, and one of the little girls receiving treatment, still covered in dust from the collapse of the home that buried her family, cried out, "My parents are under the rubble... I want my mom, I want my mom, I want my family."
