Nighttime attack kills nine people in Khan Younis, hours after Israel ordered mass evacuation

An Israeli attack has killed at least nine people in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, Palestinian health officials said on Tuesday, within a day of Israel Order to evacuate parts of the city before a likely ground operation.

The nighttime attack hit a house near the European Hospital, which is in the zone that Israel said was to be evacuated. After the first evacuation orders, the military said the facility itself was not affected, but the director said most patients and doctors had already been relocated.

Sam Rose, planning director for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNRWA, said on Tuesday the agency estimates there are about 250,000 people in the evacuation zone – over 10% of Gaza’s 2.3 million population – including many who fled earlier fighting. He says another 50,000 people living just outside the zone may also choose to flee because of their proximity to the fighting. Evacuees have been told to seek refuge in a sprawling tent camp on the coast that is already overcrowded and lacks basic services.

Israel started the war in Gaza after The Hamas attack of October 7in which militants entered southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and kidnapping about 250.

Since then, more than 37,900 people have been killed by Israeli ground offensives and bombings in Gaza, according to the Ministry of Healthwhich does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The war has reduced the flow of Food, medicines and basic goods to Gaza, and the people there are now completely dependent on aid. The UN Supreme Court concluded that there was a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza – an accusation that Israel firmly rejects.

At the moment:

— Israel calls on Palestinians to flee Khan Younisindicating a likely new attack on the city in the south of the Gaza Strip.

— the Turkish President accuses the opposition of inciting racism after anti-Syrian riots broke out.

— Lawsuit raises Iran, Syria and North Korea supporting Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7.

— Iranian presidential candidates accuse each other of having no plan or no experience before the runoff election.

— Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Here is the latest information:

Israel will supply electricity to a desalination plant in Gaza, but water supplies in the area will remain limited

JERUSALEM — Israel has announced plans to supply electricity to a large desalination plant in the southern Gaza Strip, a move Israeli officials said could increase the amount of water produced by the plant.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant this week officially approved a plan to lay a new power line to the desalination plant in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis. The plant is a vital source of clean water for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians crowded into the surrounding areas, many of whom have been displaced by Israeli evacuation orders.

COGAT, the Israeli military agency in charge of humanitarian aid in Gaza, said the plan could quadruple the amount of water the plant can produce. Water is scarce in Gaza in the summer, and many Palestinians stand in line for hours to get a jug of water for an entire family. Israeli bombardments have destroyed large parts of Gaza’s water system.

UNICEF, the UN agency that runs the plant, confirmed that an agreement had been reached with Israel. The agency said the plan to power the plant was “an important milestone” and said it was “very much looking forward to its implementation”.

This step is unlikely to solve the water crisis in the Gaza Strip. Even before the war, the desalination plans only covered a fraction of the drinking water in the Gaza Strip. The area’s most important water source, an aquifer near the coast, has been over-pumped and almost no water is drinkable anymore.

Israel appoints an International Court of Justice critic as ad hoc judge in genocide trial against South Africa

JERUSALEM – Israel has appointed a professor critical of the International Court of Justice as an ad hoc judge for the case before the court. Israel accused of genocide.

On Tuesday, Israeli officials confirmed the appointment of Ron Shapira to replace Aharon Barak, a former chief justice of Israel’s Supreme Court who served on the panel. Barak resigned from his post at the ICJ in June for family reasons.

Shapira, rector of the Peres Academic Center and former dean of the law school at Bar-Ilan University, has described the court on his personal Facebook page as “a body that almost all residents of Israel consider unworthy of any level of trust,” according to Israeli media reports. Now Shapira will be part of the panel of judges from the same court that will decide on South Africa’s claim that Israel’s offensive in Gaza is genocide.

Israel denies South Africa’s allegations and says it is waging a defensive war against Hamas, the Palestinian militant group whose October 7 attack sparked the war.

In May called on Israel to stop immediately its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, an order that Israel has ignored.

Two Israeli soldiers were killed and a third wounded in fighting in central Gaza, the military said

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says two of its soldiers were killed and a third seriously wounded in fighting in central Gaza. A statement released Tuesday gave no details of the fighting.

The militant group Islamic Jihad said it fired on Israeli supply lines in the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza on Monday. The army created the corridor, which stretches from the border to the sea, early in the war to separate northern Gaza from the south.

It was not possible to independently confirm the battlefield reports of both sides.

According to the military, 674 soldiers have been killed since the war in Gaza began, more than half of them in the October 7 Hamas attack that sparked the fighting.

At least nine people are killed in an Israeli attack overnight in the south of the Gaza Strip

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip – Palestinian health officials say an Israeli strike has killed at least nine people in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.

The nighttime attack came after Israel ordered the evacuation from parts of the city on Monday ahead of a likely ground operation.

Records from Nasser Hospital, where the dead and injured were taken, show that three children and two women were among those killed. Associated Press reporters counted the bodies at the hospital.

The attack hit a house near the European Hospital, which is in the zone that Israel said was to be evacuated. After the first evacuation orders, the military said the facility itself was not affected, but the director said most patients and doctors had already been relocated.

The military said it carried out retaliatory strikes after Palestinian militants fired a volley of about 20 missiles at Israel from Khan Younis on Monday. There were no reports of casualties or damage from the rocket attack. The main United Nations aid agency in Gaza said the latest evacuation orders apply to about 250,000 people, many of whom have already been displaced. That’s more than 10% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.

According to UNRWA officials, about 250,000 people live in the latest mass evacuation zone ordered by Israel

BEIRUT — A United Nations official says about 250,000 people live in the areas in southern Gaza where Israel has ordered another mass evacuation.

The Israeli military ordered new evacuations in and around the city of Khan Younis on Monday, which suffered great devastation during an offensive at the beginning of the year. It was the third mass evacuation ordered in less than three months.

Sam Rose, planning director for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNRWA, said on Tuesday the agency estimates there are about 250,000 people in the evacuation zone – over 10% of Gaza’s 2.3 million population – including many who fled earlier fighting. He says another 50,000 people living just outside the zone may also choose to flee because of their proximity to the fighting. Evacuees have been told to seek refuge in a sprawling tent camp on the coast that is already overcrowded and lacks basic services.

Issam Shahwan, the director of the European Hospital in the evacuation zone, said the facility was almost evacuated, with the last patients and doctors waiting to be transported to other medical facilities. After issuing the first evacuation order, the military clarified that the European Hospital did not need to be evacuated.

Palestinian militants fired a volley of about 20 missiles at Israel from Khan Younis on Monday, causing no casualties or damage.

More than a million Palestinians fled the southern city of Rafah in May after Israel launched operations there. Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to areas of Gaza where they previously operated. Palestinians and aid groups say nowhere in the area feels safe.

Liora Argamani, mother of released hostage, dies at age 61, less than a month after being reunited with her daughter

JERUSALEM – The mother of a well-known Israeli hostage who was recently freed from captivity in the Gaza Strip in a rescue operation has died, Ichilov Hospital said in a brief statement on Tuesday.

Liora Argamani, 61, who was suffering from stage four brain cancer, had asked for the release of her daughter Noa, saying she wanted to see her only child one more time before she died.

Noa Argamani, who became a symbol of the hostage crisis after a video of the October 7 Hamas attack showed her being forced onto a motorcycle and screaming at her captors not to kill her, was released along with three other hostages in early June during an Israeli military operation in central Gaza. Palestinian health officials said at least 274 Palestinians were killed.

The two were reunited, but Yaakov Argamani, Noa’s father, said Liora was in a “very difficult situation” and barely noticed the sight of her daughter, Israeli media reported.

In its surprise attack on Israel, Hamas took around 250 hostages and still holds around 120 after most of the rest were released during a ceasefire in November. About a third of those still held are believed dead. Around 1,200 people were killed in the attack. Israel’s offensive in response has killed at least 37,900 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health officials. do not distinguish between civilians and combatants in their count.