The Israeli military ordered residents to evacuate part of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday and bombarded the area, killing scores of people and wounding hundreds, local health officials reported, adding to the misery of a city already deeply scarred by nine and a half months of war.
The military said it was moving further into Khan Younis because Hamas was trying to regroup there and had used part of what was designated a humanitarian zone to fire rockets toward Israel.
The military also noted that it had warned civilians earlier on Monday, before it began its operations, to leave the “specific areas of Khan Younis,” shrinking the zone it had identified for people displaced from their homes by the war.
The Gazan health ministry said 70 bodies were brought to Nasser Hospital, and at least 200 other people had been wounded, figures that could not be confirmed independently, adding that others were almost certainly buried under rubble.
The Palestine Red Crescent said its teams in the area had dealt with at least 12 people who had been killed and 50 wounded.
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