Israeli media reports that the army is pounding the town of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

According to a report in the digital edition of the Times of Israel newspaper, facilities that the Israeli army considers to belong to Hamas in the city are being hit.

Earlier dozens of tanks, armored personnel carriers and construction equipment were seen moving towards it, according to press reports.

Last Sunday, Chahal announced that he was expanding his ground operations to “all sectors” of the Gaza Strip, amid international calls for the protection of Palestinian civilians.

Aid organizations describe the conditions for civilians in the small Palestinian enclave of 2.4 million inhabitants as “unbearable”.

Israel accuses Hamas of launching attacks from civilian facilities and hospitals and using civilians as human shields. The Palestinian Islamist movement denies this.

The war launched by Israel against Hamas after its militants’ unprecedented incursion into Israeli territory on October 7 has claimed the lives of some 16,000 people in the Gaza Strip, 70% of whom were women and children. Another 42,000 people are missing in the rubble of buildings. Although these numbers are impossible to independently verify, the United Nations and others generally describe them as reliable.

According to Israeli authorities, some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, were killed in the attack by Hamas’ military wing on southern areas of Israel on October 7, while another 240 people were abducted and taken to the small Palestinian enclave.