JERUSALEM — Israel’s army said it was commencing military operations Monday in an area of Gaza that it had previously called a safe zone, sending civilians fleeing, as the United Nations accused Israeli troops of firing on an aid convoy traveling an agreed-upon route to the north.
Past attacks by Israeli forces on aid workers have strained relations between Netanyahu’s government and the Biden administration, which has provided Israel with a steady stream of weapons throughout the war.
After nine months of conflict, relief groups describe Gaza as one of the most dangerous places to operate in the world, as more than a million civilians shelter in tents from the summer heat. Famine is looming, according to a U.N.-backed assessment, and Israel’s Health Ministry said Friday that it has detected a strain of the polio virus in Gaza’s sewage as a sanitation crisis mounts.
On Monday, Israel’s army ordered the evacuation of an area that it had previously designated as a safe zone for civilians, saying it was planning an operation against Hamas militants who have used the area to launch rockets toward Israel.
The area in question includes the eastern sector of Khan Younis, part of the humanitarian zone that included Mawasi, where the Israeli military estimates that some 1.8 million Palestinians are sheltering, with families packed in so tightly that their tents stretch right to the shoreline.
Images from inside Gaza show thousands of people clutching their possessions as they push through streets crammed with people and debris, seeking to escape areas that Israel said would soon see military action.
Iman al-Zeer, 34, a mother of four who was reached by phone in a section of Khan Younis that was included in the evacuation order, said she was unable to leave due to heavy gunfire.
The Gaza Health Ministry said 49 people have been killed and 186 wounded so far on Monday. The local civil defense force said members of one of its ambulance crews were wounded as they tried to reach casualties at the Bani Suhaila roundabout in eastern Khan Younis.
Zeer said she could hear the sound of intense shelling and airstrikes close by. “We were listening to the sounds of the screams of people as they fled,” she said. “Whenever we try to move, we are shot at. It’s impossible for us to move, because we would have to walk toward Bani Suhaila.”
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) that aids Palestinian refugees, said Monday that Israeli forces fired upon one of the organization’s convoys a day earlier as it waited for the Israeli army to greenlight its onward movement to the battle-scarred north.
“The teams were traveling in clearly marked UN armoured cars & wearing UN vests. One vehicle received at least five bullets,” Lazzarini said in a message posted to X. “Those responsible must be held accountable.”
The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment about the incident. Louise Wateridge, a spokeswoman for UNRWA, said that, by chance, she had been sitting in the front passenger seat of the vehicle that was fired upon. The bullets appeared to have come from an area of IDF operations to the east, she said, and left fragments on the back seat.
“We were incredibly lucky that there was nobody in the back seat. This is the first mission I’ve ever been on in the Gaza Strip where there was nobody in the back seat. But it shouldn’t come down to luck,” she said.
She added that there were no visible military targets in the area and that the volley of bullets cracked through the air after a displaced Palestinian mother passed the vehicle, carrying a baby in her arms while three young children trudged behind her in the baking heat.
“They were there really moments before,” Wateridge said. “They would have been in the firing line, and for what?”
More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel’s military operation began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children.
Netanyahu’s tense relationship with Biden has deteriorated greatly in recent months as Israel has defied numerous White House entreaties to increase the flow of humanitarian aid in Gaza and do more to protect civilians. The administration put a hold on 2,000-pound bombs to Israel in May, citing their use in populated areas.
Israeli military officials say the most intense phase of their war against Hamas is nearing an end. But on the ground in Gaza, Palestinian and foreign medics say they have witnessed a surge in mass-casualty attacks by Israeli forces in recent weeks. The casualties have overwhelmed hospitals that could barely cope with the sheer number of unhealed wounds they were treating from previous attacks, aid groups say.
Analysts cast the shift as part of an Israeli strategy to pressure Hamas in ongoing diplomatic negotiations aimed at securing a cease-fire and the release of the more than 100 hostages still held by the group. As U.S.-backed talks in Cairo are reportedly gaining momentum, the Biden administration is pressing a reluctant Netanyahu to accept a deal. He denies that he is obstructing the process.
Netanyahu has been accused by critics of prolonging the war for his own political benefit, a charge he denies. He remains adamant that Israel must fight until Hamas has been destroyed, a goal his own generals have said is unachievable.
U.S. administration officials denied, before Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race, that Netanyahu had been significantly emboldened by criticism of the president’s physical ability to do his job. But they acknowledged that Biden’s mounting problems have coincided with a hardening of the prime minister’s position. Netanyahu recently came forward with last-minute demands that U.S. negotiators feared would stymie the Cairo talks, according to diplomats familiar with the discussions.
The Israel Defense Forces said Monday that two more hostages, Alex Dancyg, 76, and Yagev Buchshtab, 35, have been killed in the Gaza Strip. “The circumstances of their deaths in Hamas captivity are being investigated by all relevant professional bodies,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari said. “The IDF and other security agencies will continue to support the families of the hostages as needed.”
The Hostages Families Forum, an umbrella group representing loved ones of the more than 250 hostages kidnapped by Hamas and other armed groups on Oct. 7, described the news as “devastating.” Buchshtab, it said, “was a humble and unassuming man who loved life” in the kibbutz from which he was taken. “Hostages who were held captive with him reported that [Dancyg] spent his time in captivity giving history lectures to fellow captives.”
“Their death in captivity is a tragic reflection of the consequences of foot-dragging in negotiations. We reiterate our demand to the Israeli government and its leader: Approve the deal immediately.”
Here’s what else to know:
- Israeli athletes at the Paris Olympics will be provided with 24-hour protection, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said Sunday. The security announcement came after a far-left French lawmaker said Israel’s delegation was not welcome at the event and called for protests against the athletes participating.
- A Canadian citizen attempted to carry out a stabbing attack in southern Israel close to the Gaza border, the IDF and Israeli police said Monday. The suspect was neutralized by the rapid response team he had reportedly threatened. Police described him as a Muslim from Canada who was visiting Israel as a tourist.
- At least 39,006 people have been killed and 89,818 injured in Gaza since the war started, said the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, including more than 300 soldiers, and it says 326 soldiers have been killed since the start of its military operations in Gaza.
Lior Soroka in Tel Aviv and Steve Hendrix in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
