CAIRO: Israeli forces carried out new raids in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to address the US Congress.

The latest Israeli attacks destroyed homes in towns east of Khan Yunis 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, where Hamas said fighters had detonated a bomb against an Israeli army personnel carrier.

The Israeli military said it had been operating in areas from which fighters had been able to fire rockets into Israel and attack Israeli troops. Gaza health officials said Israeli military strikes in the past 24 hours had killed at least 55 people, the latest casualties in fighting that health authorities in the enclave say has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians.

“Where should we go? Shall we cross into the sea?” said Ghada, who has been displaced with her family six times during the Israeli offensive, via a chat app from Hamad City in northwestern Khan Yunis.

“We are exhausted, starved, and want the war to end now, now not an hour later.” 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.

“During scans in the area, the troops located a tunnel shaft, a large number of weapons, and night vision equipment inside a children’s bedroom in a civilian building,” the military said.

One soldier was seriously hurt during combat on Wednesday, said the military, which has so far lost 326 troops in Gaza. The Palestinian Health Ministry does not distinguish between combatant and non-combatants in its fatality reports but local health officials say most of the Palestinians killed have been civilians. Israel says at least a third are fighters.

Some Palestinians who gathered at a hospital in Khan Yunis before funerals criticised the United States, Israel’s most important international ally, for welcoming Netanyahu.

“The United States is a main partner in what is happening in Gaza. We are being killed because of the United States. We are being slaughtered by American planes, American ships, American tanks, and American troops,” said Kazem Abu Taha, a displaced resident from Rafah.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2024