Fighting inches closer to hospitals in Gaza's Khan Yunis
GAZA, Palestine (AFP) - Heavy fighting drew near to hospitals in Gaza's Khan Yunis on Wednesday after Israel said it had intensified its assault on the city that has become the focus of its war with Hamas.
The Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory said at least 25,700 people have been martyred in the Palestinian territory since the war with Israel broke out on October 7. It added that at least 210 people were killed over the past 24 hours, while another 63,740 have been wounded since the war began. The United Nations raised fears about the fate of thousands of internally displaced people sheltering -- and now trapped -- on the grounds of the hospitals in southern Gaza's biggest city.
The Israeli army says it has "encircled" Khan Yunis, the birthplace of Hamas's Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, accused of being the mastermind of the October 7 attacks that sparked the war. "Heavy fighting is reported in proximity to hospitals in Khan Yunis, including Al-Aqsa, Nasser and Al-Amal, with reports of Palestinians trying to flee to the southern town of Rafah," the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said.
"No-one can enter or exit (Nasser Hospital) due to ongoing bombardments," OCHA said citing medics who also reported that staff were digging graves on the grounds of the facility "due to the large numbers of fatalities anticipated".
OCHA said about 18,000 people uprooted from their homes were reported to be at Nasser Hospital alone. An AFP journalist saw Palestinians who fled Khan Yunis arriving in Rafah on the backs of pick-up trucks along with their belongings.
Gaza hospitals had already received the bodies of at least 125 people killed overnight, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said. "Dozens of Israeli tanks are surrounding Nasser Hospital from all sides, except for a corridor for displaced people to leave," the Hamas government said.
'Nothing to eat'
In Gaza City, people displaced by the war said they were stuck in a new conflict zone without provisions. "They besieged us in the camp and brought us here, and even here, the shelling continued," Umm Dahud al-Kafarna, originally from Beit Hanun, told AFPTV. "They have besieged us for six days, leaving us with nothing to eat or drink while bombing us from the air, sea and tanks."
US President Joe Biden's Middle East envoy Brett McGurk is in the region for talks aimed at brokering a new deal to free the remaining captives in exchange for a pause in fighting.
"Certainly one of the things he's in the region talking about is the potential for another hostage deal, which would require a humanitarian pause of some length," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. "The conversations are very sober and serious about trying to get another hostage deal."
A Palestinian source familiar with the talks told AFP a Hamas delegation had arrived in Cairo on Tuesday to meet Egypt's intelligence chief and discuss new ceasefire proposals. A source close to Hamas told AFP that the talks in the Egyptian capital were continuing on Wednesday.
