Israel stepped up its assault on Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip today, pushing tanks west and prompting accusations from Jordan that its field hospital in the town was badly damaged by shelling in the wider area.

The Jordanian military announced that it held Israel responsible for “flagrant violation of international law” for damage caused to the hospital as a result of Israeli shelling nearby.

At the moment the Israeli army has not commented on this information.

People at another hospital, Nasser, were fleeing its premises and the surrounding area as tanks approached it overnight after the Israeli army said it had come under fire from there.

Hamas fighters deny using health facilities for military operations.

Palestinian health officials said 7 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes that damaged houses near the hospital.

Much of the staff at Nasser Hospital has fled to shelters further south in the Gaza Strip, with just one doctor left for more than 100 burn patients, Sean Casey, Gaza’s emergency medical team coordinator, said on Jan. 9. World Health Organization (WHO).

Only about a third of Gaza’s hospitals remain operational, and some only partially so.

Explosions from shelling and airstrikes could be heard even further west in Khan Yunis as Israeli tanks advanced, plumes of thick black smoke rising into the sky from bombed areas. Witnesses said tanks and bulldozers damaged a cemetery there before retreating back into the city center.

Israel announced it had killed 6 Palestinian militants, including the Hamas southern region official responsible for interrogating espionage suspects.

The Israeli military said in a statement summarizing its latest operations that the death of Hamas counterintelligence officer Bilal Nofal “will have a significant impact on the terrorist organization’s ability to develop and strengthen its capabilities».

Further south, in Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of people moved on Israeli advice, some wept over bodies in shrouds, including that of a girl, Masha.

“We were sleeping when we saw rockets falling on us. We got up and couldn’t see anything. We started asking each other to see how the other was doing. The little girl became a martyrher aunt Tahrir Soman said, adding that her siblings were injured but survived.

Israeli forces reached the center of Khan Younis more than a month ago, and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallad said on Monday that intensive military operations in the south were coming to an end, weeks after similar statements about the northern part of the Palestinian enclave.

However, clashes raged in the densely populated Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip today, a day after Israeli tanks returned to storm parts of the northern Palestinian enclave, which they had withdrawn from last week.

Israel announced it was scaling back operations in the northern Gaza Strip in early January as part of what it said was a more targeted approach to its war against Hamas militants, following operations that flattened entire areas.

West Bank

The conflict has spread to the occupied West Bank, where more than 300 Palestinians have been killed and thousands arrested in raids that Israel says are aimed at rooting out militants there.

The Israeli military announced today that its forces eliminated a “terrorist cell” with a precision airstrike on a car near the Balata camp in the city of Nablus.

The military added that it had killed Abdullah Abu Salal, the “head of the terrorist infrastructure” of the camp, who it noted was planning an imminent, large-scale terrorist attack with its core members. Four other members of the core were also killed, he added.

The Palestinian Red Crescent had earlier announced that its teams had been prevented from reaching the wounded.

A few hours later, 4 people were killed in an airstrike in Tulkarem, which is one of the important crossing points between the West Bank and Israel and has been a frequent target of Israeli military operations since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out. in Gaza.