It says an influx would undermine its decades-old peace treaty with Israel, and it doubts Israel will let them back into Gaza. On the other side of the border, Egypt has deployed thousands of troops and erected earthen barriers to prevent any mass influx of refugees. Rafah, normally home to around 280,000 people, has already been packed with more than 470,000 who fled from other parts of Gaza. Tens of thousands of people have fled from Khan Younis and other areas to Rafah, on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, the U.N. It also says some 5,000 militants have been killed, without saying how it arrived at its count. The military says 87 of its soldiers have been killed in the Gaza ground offensive. But Israel has not given detailed accounts of its individual strikes, some of which have leveled entire city blocks. Israel accuses Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for 16 years, of using civilians as human shields when the militants operate in residential areas and blames that for the high civilian death toll. But Hamas ’ continuing ability to fight in areas where Israel entered with overwhelming force weeks ago signals that eradicating the group while avoiding further mass casualties and displacement - as Israel’s top ally, the U.S., has requested - could prove elusive. Its account could not be independently confirmed. Several of the vehicles are shown bursting into flames. Hamas posted a video it said showed its fighters in Shujaiya moving through narrow alleys and wrecked buildings and opening fire with rocket-propelled grenades on Israel armored vehicles. Hagari said heavy fighting was also continuing in the north, in the Jabaliya refugee camp and the district of Shujaiya. Some took positions behind an earthen berm, while others inside a home fired out through a window, its flowered curtains fluttering around them. Video released by the military showed commandos and troops moving amid sounds of gunfire down city streets strewn with wreckage and buildings with giant holes punched into them. The Israeli accounts of the battle could not be independently confirmed. It said warplanes destroyed tunnel shafts and troops seized a Hamas outpost as well as several weapons caches. The military said its special forces at Khan Younis had broken through defense lines of Hamas fighters and were assaulting their positions in the city center. “Our job is to find Sinwar and kill him.” Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Sinwar is “not aboveground, he is underground,” but would not elaborate on where Israel believes him to be. The refugee camp within Khan Younis was the childhood home of Hamas’ top leader in Gaza, Yehya Sinwar, and the group’s military chief, Mohammed Deif, as well as other Hamas leaders - giving it major symbolic importance in Israel’s offensive. Their plight and accounts of rape and other atrocities committed during the rampage have deepened Israel’s outrage and further galvanized support for the war. Hamas and other militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took captive some 240 people in that attack.Īn estimated 138 hostages remain in Gaza after more than 100 were freed during a cease-fire in late November. Israel has vowed to fight on, saying it can no longer accept Hamas rule or the group’s military presence in Gaza after the Oct. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths. The agency has said many are also trapped under rubble. Israel’s campaign has killed more than 16,200 people in Gaza - most of them women and children - and wounded more than 42,000, the territory’s Health Ministry said late Tuesday. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said, “Palestinians in Gaza are living in utter, deepening horror.” Speaking at a news conference in Geneva, he said that “my humanitarian colleagues have described the situation as apocalyptic.”
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