Fighting
intensified Wednesday in Gaza’s Khan Yunis, the focus of Israel’s war against
Hamas, with the UN saying nine people were killed in tank shelling at one of
its shelters, sparking international condemnation.

The United Nations slammed a “blatant disregard” for the rules of war while
the United States deplored the attack at the shelter housing displaced
Palestinians in southern Gaza’s biggest city.

It came after the Israeli army said it had 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.

Footage released by the military showed Israeli soldiers engaged in urban
combat in the city amid ruined buildings. Large clouds of black smoke
billowed over Khan Yunis during Israeli bombardments, AFP photos showed.

The attack on the UN shelter, housing 800 people, saw the site hit by two
tank rounds, killing nine and injuring 75, said Thomas White, the Gaza head
of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

Philippe Lazzarini — the head of the agency, UNRWA — condemned the attack
and said the number of dead was likely to rise.

“Once again a blatant disregard of basic rules of war,” Lazzarini said on X,
formerly Twitter, adding that the compound had been clearly marked as a UN
facility, and its coordinates had been shared with Israeli authorities.বিস্তারিত