The Israeli military on Thursday reported an attack and destruction of a militant headquarters in the southern Gaza Strip.
The IDF said Israeli forces carried out operations in the Khan Younis area, including locating a weapons production warehouse.
The military said Israeli operations in central Gaza also killed about 10 militants over the past day.
Palestinians taking refuge near Rafah on Gaza’s border with Egypt have begun leaving the area because they fear Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s warning of a military invasion during Ramadan, the United Nations’ acting humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories said on Wednesday. .
Jamie McGoldrick told reporters virtually: “They have moved north back to Deir Balah, some have gone back to Khan Younis and many of them have gone to Al Al Mawasi – this is an area on the coastal dunes.”
McGoldrick, who just concluded a two-day visit to Gaza, also said aid workers were preparing dual contingency plans – one in anticipation of a possible ceasefire and the other in case of an Israeli invasion of Rafah.
Israel said it would move Palestinians to safety before the attack on Rafah, but did not say where they would be sent.
McGoldrick said the inability to safely pre-position aid in the Gaza Strip left neither aid workers nor Palestinians seeking safety with any “easy options.” He also said U.N. officials had received “approval” from Israel to start using a road previously reserved for Israeli forces. A north-south main line parallel to Gaza’s eastern border would allow aid to enter through the Kerem Shalom and Rafah crossings and directly to the hard-to-reach north.
He said the United Nations planned to survey the road on Thursday to see if it was free of explosives and to look for a suitable storage and distribution site, possibly a football stadium.
Israel has vowed to end the threat of another Hamas attack like the one that killed 1,200 people on Oct. 7, according to Israel’s count. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, Israel’s counteroffensive since then has killed more than 30,700 people in Gaza, about 70% of whom were women and children. Another 72,100 Palestinians were injured.
Margaret Beshear contributed to this report. Some information comes from The Associated Press, AFP and Reuters.
