DOHA/GAZA (Reuters): A day after the world court ruling, Israel pressed ahead on Saturday with its campaign against Hamas in Gaza’s Khan Younis area, while bad weather hit displaced Palestinians seeking refuge further north in the battered enclave.
Residents reported heavy aerial and tank fire across Khan Younis, a part of southern Gaza that has become the focus of Israel’s ground offensive against Hamas, and around two main hospitals there.
Hamas said its fighters fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli tank in southwest Khan Younis.
The Israeli military said it killed at least 11 gunmen who were trying to plant explosives near troops and others firing rifles and rocket-propelled grenades at soldiers in Khan Younis. Over the past week, it added, commandos killed more than 100 militants and raided weapons warehouses.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, allied with Hamas, said its fighters were engaging Israeli forces in the area and had fired rockets into Israel.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Israeli strikes hit near the largest functioning medical facility in the south, Nasser Hospital, and Al-Amal Hospital, where one person was killed in the courtyard, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
The Israeli bombardment was compromising healthcare and endangering the lives of doctors, patients and displaced people, said ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra.
The Israeli military says it is in contact with hospital directors and medical staff by phone and on the ground to make sure that they are running and accessible. Israel says Hamas operates in and around medical facilities, an allegation the group denies.
In a ruling on Friday, the World Court stopped short of ordering a ceasefire but ordered Israel to prevent acts of genocide against Palestinians and do more to help civilians. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said afterwards that the war aimed at eliminating Hamas would continue.
In the southern city of Rafah, Zainab Khalil, 57, displaced with her family several times until reaching shelter not far from the border with Egypt, said the International Court of Justice’s ruling was important but not enough. “We want a ceasefire now,” she said.
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