Israeli strikes in southern and central Gaza kill more than 60 Palestinians, including in the ‘security zone’

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 60 Palestinians in southern and central Gaza overnight and into Tuesday, including one that hit a “security zone” declared by Israel and populated by thousands of displaced people.

Airstrikes in recent days have killed countless Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, even as Israel has pulled back or scaled back its main ground offensives in the north and south. Near-daily strikes have hit the “security zone” covering some 60 square kilometers (24 square miles) along the Mediterranean coast, where Israel has urged fleeing Palestinians to seek shelter to escape ground attacks. Israel has said it is pursuing Hamas militants hiding among civilians after offensives uprooted underground tunnel networks.

Tuesday’s deadliest attack hit a main street lined with market stalls outside the southern city of Khan Younis, in Muwasi, the heart of the area that is teeming with tent camps. Officials at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said 17 people were killed.

Apparently referring to the strike, the Israeli military said in a statement that it targeted a commander of the Islamic Jihad naval unit west of Khan Younis. It added that it was investigating reports of civilian deaths.

The attack took place about a kilometer from a compound that Israel struck on Saturday, saying it targeted Hamas’ top military commander. Mohammed DeifThe explosion, in an area also surrounded by tents, killed more than 90 Palestinians, including children, According to Gaza health officials, it remains unclear whether Deif was killed in the attack.

The new airstrikes come as Israel and Hamas continue to exert pressure the latest ceasefire proposalHamas said the talks aimed to end the nine-month-old war. would continueeven after Israel targeted Deif. International mediators are trying to push Israel and Hamas toward a deal that would end the fighting and free about 120 hostages held by the militant group in Gaza.

Israeli forces have repeatedly had to launch new offensives to combat Hamas fighters who they say are regrouping in areas of Gaza that the army had already overrun. Yet the army appears increasingly convinced that it has seriously damaged the militants’ organization and infrastructure during its nine-month campaign.

The army announced on Tuesday that it had eliminated half of the leaders of Hamas’ armed wing and killed or arrested some 14,000 militants. It also said it had killed six brigade commanders, more than 20 battalion commanders and about 150 Hamas company commanders. During the war, it struck 37,000 air targets in the Gaza Strip, including more than 25,000 terrorist infrastructure and launch sites.

These figures could not be independently confirmed.

Israeli ground operations have focused on northern Gaza and the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah, where Hamas claims to have destroyed extensive tunnel networks. The offensives have leveled entire neighborhoods. While ground operations continue in Rafah, airstrikes now appear to be hitting hard areas spared by previous offensives in the center and the coastal “security zone.”

Strikes hit the Nuseirat and Zawaida refugee camps in central Gaza on Monday night and Tuesday. Strikes on four homes killed at least 24 people, including 10 women and four children, according to officials at Al Aqsa Hospital in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah.

Another blast hit a United Nations school in Nuseirat, where families had taken shelter, killing at least nine people. AP footage showed the schoolyard covered in rubble and twisted sheet metal from a structure that was hit. Workers carried bodies wrapped in blankets, while women and children watched from classrooms where they lived.

The Israeli military claimed that Hamas militants were operating from the school to plan attacks. This claim could not be independently confirmed.

Other strikes in Khan Younis and Rafah killed 12 people, according to medical officials and AP journalists. An AP journalist counted the bodies at the hospital before a funeral ceremony was held outside its gates.

The army said air force jets struck about 40 targets in Gaza over the past day, including observation posts, Hamas military structures and booby-trapped buildings. Israel blames Hamas for the civilian casualties, as the militants operate in densely populated areas.

The Israeli army announced Tuesday that it would begin sending out conscription notices to ultra-Orthodox Jewish men next week — a move that could destabilize Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and spark new mass protests within the community. Under longstanding political agreements, ultra-Orthodox men were exempt from military service, which is mandatory for most Jewish men — an exemption that has sparked public resentment in Israel.

The war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on October 7, has killed more than 38,600 people, according to the territory’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its tally. The war has created a humanitarian catastrophe in the Palestinian coastal territory, displaced most of its 2.3 million people and triggered widespread famine.

The Hamas attack in October left 1,200 people dead, mostly civilians, and the militants took about 250 hostages. About 120 people remain in captivity, a third of whom are believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.

Violence has also increased in the West Bank. On Tuesday, a Palestinian stabbed an Israeli police officer, lightly wounding him, before another officer opened fire, killing the assailant, identified as a 19-year-old from Gaza.

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