Beijing, 4 Dec (Xinhua) -- The Israeli military said on 3 December that the Israeli army has expanded its ground offensive in the Gaza Strip and has launched combat operations in the southern Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) said it was exchanging fire with Israeli forces near the southern town of Khan Younis.
On December 2, in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, a plastic factory was bombed by Israeli forces. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Yasser Cudi).
The Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, Hezi Al-Halewi, visited the Gaza Strip on the same day to inspect the fighting units. He said that the Israeli army has killed many Hamas commanders in the northern Gaza Strip in the past two days, and began to carry out "the same operation" in the southern Gaza Strip on the morning of 2 July.
Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said at a press conference on the evening of the 3rd that the Israeli army's ground offensive is expanding to "all areas of the Gaza Strip."
The wounded are being treated in a makeshift hospital in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis on 2 December. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Rizek Abduljawad).
Israeli military radio reported on the same day that the Israeli army launched a ground operation north of Khan Younis.
Khan Younis is the second largest city in the Gaza Strip. After the outbreak of large-scale clashes between Hamas and Israel on October 7, the Israeli army launched a large-scale attack on the Gaza Strip, forcing a large number of people living in the northern Gaza Strip to seek refuge here. On the 3rd, Israeli troops dropped leaflets in Khan Younis and its surrounding areas, demanding that the local people immediately evacuate the area.
Seven days after a brief ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, fighting resumed in the Gaza Strip. In the past few days, the Israeli army has been bombing targets in the southern Gaza Strip with air strikes in preparation for advancing ground operations.
This is a photograph of displaced Palestinians at a hospital in Deir al-Bailah in the Gaza Strip on December 3. Xinhua News Agency.
According to Reuters, Israeli tanks have cut Khan Younis' main road to the central city of Deir al-Bairah, dividing the Gaza Strip into three, namely the north, the central and the south. The Israeli army wants to drive more than 2 million people in the Gaza Strip to what Israel calls a "safe zone" in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, or in the Mediterranean coastal town of Mawasi.
The "safe zone" in Mawasi is only a few square kilometres in size and lacks the infrastructure to accommodate a large population. More than a dozen organizations, including UN agencies and international charities, had previously issued a joint statement opposing the unilateral establishment of "safe zones".
This is a wounded Palestinian child photographed at a hospital in Deir al-Bailah in the Gaza Strip on 3 December. Xinhua News Agency.
Nabil Gandur, a resident of the Gaza Strip, told Reuters that he would go to Rafah with his family on the evening of the 3rd, and that this was their fifth move since the conflict began on October 7. "We don't see any safe places. But what else can we do but move?We still have children, and there is gunfire all night here. ”
The United Nations estimates that 1.8 million** of the 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip have been left homeless, most of them concentrated in the southern Gaza Strip, and nearly one million are currently taking refuge in United Nations aid facilities.
The health department of the Gaza Strip said that as of the 3rd, the Israeli army's military operations in the Gaza Strip have caused more than 1550,000 Palestinians died, 4More than 10,000 people were injured. The Israeli side said that about 1,200 Israelis died in the clashes. (Wang Hongbin).
*:Xinhua.