A distressed Palestinian woman and boy arrive at the Nasser hospital after Israeli forces targeted the northeastern district of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, yesterday.
Israeli forces carried out new raids in the Gaza Strip yesterday.
The latest Israeli attacks destroyed homes in towns east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza and thousands of people were forced to head west to seek shelter, residents said.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said it had received distress calls from residents trapped in their homes in Bani Suhaila, east of Khan Younis, but were unable to reach the town.
Medics later said two Palestinians had been killed in an airstrike on Bani Suhaila.
Gaza health officials said Israeli military strikes in the past 24 hours had killed at least 55 people, the latest casualties in a war that health authorities in the enclave say has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians.
Local health authorities confirmed that the Palestinian death toll from the Israeli onslaught since October 7 has risen to 39,090 reported fatalities, with an additional 90,147 individuals sustaining injuries. The majority of the victims are women and children.
Residents said they had been ordered to head west towards a designated humanitarian area but that the area was now unsafe. The Israeli military issued the evacuation orders on social media, and some residents received orders to leave by phone.
Israeli forces also mounted airstrikes on several areas of central and northern Gaza, including one on Al-Bureij camp in central Gaza which health officials said killed nine people.
In the southern area of Rafah, the military said it engaged in close-quarter combat with militants.
Some Palestinians who gathered at a hospital in Khan Younis before funerals criticised the United States, Israel’s most important international ally, for welcoming Netanyahu.
