Israel’s Defence Forces close in on Hamas leaders in Khan Younis as UN warns heavy bombardment of southern Gaza has left ‘no safe zones’ anywhere for fleeing Palestinians

• ‘Nowhere is safe in Gaza, and there is nowhere left to go,’ U.N. coordinator said

Israel’s military is pushing deeper into southern Gaza today in an expansion of its ground operations to root out Hamas leaders leaving war-weary Palestinians with ‘no safe zones’ left for shelter.

The IDF intensified its bombardment in and around Khan Younis early this morning, sending ambulances, private cars and even trucks racing into the local Nasser hospital laden with wounded civilians in a bloody new phase of the war. 

It came as eyewitnesses claimed Israeli tanks were closing in after satellite photos from Sunday showed around 150 Israeli tanks and armoured personnel carriers less than four miles from the heart of Gaza’s second-largest city. 

‘Nowhere is safe in Gaza, and there is nowhere left to go,’ Lynn Hastings, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said Monday. 

‘The conditions required to deliver aid to the people of Gaza do not exist. If possible, an even more hellish scenario is about to unfold.’

The bitter conflict has already killed more than 15,000 Palestinians and displaced over three-fourths of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents. The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll in the territory since Oct. 7 has surpassed 15,890, with more than 41,000 wounded. 

The United States, Qatar and Egypt, which mediated the earlier cease-fire, say they are working on a longer truce to bring about a fresh opportunity to get aid to Palestinians and work on the release of hostages seized by Hamas.

But hopes for another temporary truce faded after Israel called its negotiators home over the weekend. Hamas said talks on releasing more of the scores of hostages seized by militants on Oct. 7 must be tied to a permanent cease-fire.

An injured Palestinian child is taken to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital for a treatment as Israeli attacks continue in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on December 05, 2023

An Israeli military tank rolls near the border with the Gaza Strip on December 5, 2023

An Israeli artillery unit operates at the border with Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, as seen from southern Israel, December 5, 2023

An injured Palestinian girl named Lana Ebu Safi is under treatment at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital

Wounded Palestinians are transported to Nasser hospital following Israeli strikes

An injured Palestinian child is taken to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital for a treatment as Israeli attacks continue in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on December 05, 2023

A man wounded in Israeli air strikes on southern Gaza lies on a stretcher as he is carried to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, 05 December 2023

Aerial bombardment and the ground offensive have already driven three-fourths of the territory’s 2.3 million people from their homes – and new orders to evacuate areas around Khan Younis are squeezing people into ever-smaller areas of the already tiny coastal strip.

At the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, ambulances brought dozens of wounded people in, including a young boy in a bloody shirt whose hand had been blown off.

‘What’s happening here is unimaginable,’ said Hamza al-Bursh, who lives in the neighbourhood of Maan, one of several in and around the city where Israel has ordered civilians to leave. ‘They strike indiscriminately.’

Residents said troops had advanced following heavy airstrikes to Bani Suheila, a town just east of Khan Younis. Halima Abdel-Rahman, who fled to the town earlier in the war from her home in the north, said they could hear explosions through the night.

‘They are very close,’ she said. ‘It’s the same scenario we saw in the north.’ 

Israel ordered the full-scale evacuation of northern Gaza in the early days of the war and has barred people who left from returning. In the south, it has ordered people out of nearly two dozen neighbourhoods in and around Khan Younis. 

That further reduced the area where civilians can seek refuge in central and southern Gaza by more than a quarter.

In spite of the huge Israeli offensive, Hamas have continued to fire back.

Many of their rockets are shot down by Israel’s array of air-defence systems like the Iron Dome, but one rocket slammed into an apartment block in Ashkelon, blowing a hole in the side of it and destroying several homes.

No casualties were reported in the attack, with residents taking shelter in safe rooms amid air raid sirens.  

Palestinians fleeing the Israeli ground offensive arrive in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023

Palestinians fleeing the Israeli ground offensive arrive in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023

An injured Palestinian girl named Lana Ebu Safi is under treatment at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital after Israeli attacks that continue in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on December 05, 2023

Askhelon resident Katya Ekimov inspects her bedroom that was destroyed after a rocket attack on December 5, 2023 in Ashkelon, Israel

A member of emergency services speaks on a mobile phone as he inspects the damage inside a building which was hit by a rocket fired from Gaza today

Israel says it must dismantle Hamas’ extensive military infrastructure and remove it from power to prevent a repeat of the Oct. 7 attack that ignited the war. 

The surprise assault through the border fence saw Hamas and other Palestinian militants kill about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and capture some 240 men, women and children.

The military says it makes every effort to spare civilians and accuses Hamas of using them as human shields as the militants fight in dense residential areas, where they have labyrinths of tunnels, bunkers, rocket launchers and sniper nests.

Hamas is deeply rooted in Palestinian society, and its determination to end decades of open-ended Israeli military rule over millions of Palestinians is shared by the vast majority, even those opposed to its maximalist aim of eventually destroying Israel, and its attacks on civilians. 

That will complicate any effort to eliminate Hamas without causing massive casualties and further displacement.

Satellite photos from Sunday showed around 150 Israeli tanks, armoured personnel carriers and other vehicles just under 6 kilometres (4 miles) north of the heart of the city.

Securing a cease-fire is becoming an increasingly high priority for many nations, including Israel’s supporters Britain and the United States.

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps today told MPs he will ‘move heaven and earth’ to rescue hostages held by Hamas.

Speaking during an urgent question on UK military deployments to the Middle East, he said: ‘I’ll move heaven and earth to bring our hostages home, and the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) will conduct the surveillance flights over eastern Mediterranean including operating in airspace over Israel and Gaza.

A view of a hole on a wall of a building which was hit by a rocket fired from Gaza today, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Ashkelon, Israel, December 5, 2023

An Israeli artillery unit is pictured near the border with the Gaza Strip on December 5, 2023, amid continuing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas

An Israeli artillery unit is pictured near the border with the Gaza Strip on December 5, 2023

Smoke rises above buildings in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, as battles between Israel and Hamas militants continue on December 5, 2023

Palestinians wounded in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip are brought to the hospital in Deir al Balah on Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023.

‘Surveillance aircraft will be unmanned, they do not have a combat role and will be tasked solely to locate hostages,’ he continued.

‘Only information relating to hostage rescue will be passed to relevant authorities responsible for those rescues.

‘The MoD is working on land, air and maritime routes to deliver urgently needed humanitarian aid, four RAF flights carrying over 74 tonnes of aid have landed in Egypt and I’m considering whether RFA Argus and Lyme Bay can support medical and humanitarian aid provision, given that their original purpose was to potentially take non-combatants out of the area.’

Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council whose workers are assisting with aid delivery and evacuations in Gaza, said: ‘The pulverising of Gaza now ranks amongst the worst assaults on any civilian population in our time and age. Each day we see more dead children and new depths of suffering for innocent people enduring this hell.

‘Across the Gaza Strip, almost the entire population – 1.9 million people – have been displaced. Nearly two in three homes are now damaged or destroyed. Amid relentless air, land and sea attacks, thousands of families are forced to relocate from one perilous zone to another. 

‘Many of my own NRC staff members now live on the streets. One of them does so with her two-month-old baby.

‘Countries supporting Israel with arms must understand that these civilian deaths will be a permanent stain on their reputation. They must demand an immediate ceasefire in Israel and Gaza. 

‘Only a cessation of hostilities will allow us to ensure effective relief to the two million who now require it. Severe restrictions on aid access have aggravated the situation, leading to starvation among Gaza’s population, intensifying an already dire humanitarian crisis.’

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