Israel says it is currently in the middle of the heaviest fighting in Gaza

Israeli Defense Mission in the Gaza Strip: Israel’s “Peaceful Leader” for the Defense of the Palestinians and the United Nations

“There is no ‘safe’ zone, the entire Gaza Strip has become one of the most dangerous places in the world,” the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday.

More than 15,000 people in Gaza have been killed since the fighting began, according to Gaza health officials, and nearly three-quarters of the population made homeless. Pressure on Israel to protect Palestinians from the death and suffering of Gazans was brought about by the international pressure.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin gave a speech at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California, warning that Israel risks “strategic defeat” if it doesn’t protect Palestinians in Gaza.

“The center of gravity is the civilian population and if you drive them into the arms of the enemy, you replace a tactical victory with a strategic defeat,” Austin said.

Halevi said that people ask about the destruction in Gaza. “Hamas is the answer to all of those questions, because our forces find weapons in almost every house, terrorists are found in many houses, and we fight them,” he said.

The use of a wide range of fire, both to damage the enemy and protect our forces, is what these things require. Halevi said they are operating powerfully while still going to great efforts to minimize harm to civilians.

Carter said it took a very long time to clear operations. They still have to conduct military operations in certain areas that have already been cleared as Hamas fighters attack their positions.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and ministers of his war cabinet met with some hostages released in a brief cease-fire last month after being held for weeks in Gaza by Hamas.

The hostages castigated the Israeli government for bombingindiscriminately and claiming to have intel on Hamas. They said during captivity they were more afraid of Israeli bombs than their militant captors.

NPR’s Scott Neuman and Eleanor Beardsley reported from Tel Aviv and Brian Mann from Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. NPR producer Anas Baba was in the Gaza Strip.

The IDF said on Wednesday that it hit 250 targets in the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours and that ground troops continued to locate and destroy other terrorist infrastructures.

The statement marked the first time that Israel had acknowledged that ground forces were engaged in and around Khan Younis. Israel released video which it said showed soldiers in northern Gaza.

He said the Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday were taking part “in the most intense day since the beginning of the ground operation, in terms of terrorists killed, the number of firefights, and the use of firepower from the land and air.”

“We are in the heart of Jabaliya, in the heart of Shujaiya, and now also in the heart of Khan Younis,” the head of Israel’s Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman said at a news briefing on Tuesday. The site of a major refugee camp is located in Gaza’s north. Khan Younis is a Hamas stronghold and is located to the south of the Strip.

In Khan Younis, the second-biggest city in the Gaza Strip, there was a heavy bombardment of the city by Israel on Wednesday.

Gaza’s worst enemy: Israel’s attack on civilians in the Second-largest city of Gaza, as declared by Israeli military spokesman Adraee

The former attorney general of Israel,Avihai Mandelblit, thinks that Israel would like civilians to escape harm’s way even though there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Being there but only protecting their lives is what I’m saying. If they keep fighting in Khan Younis, a lot of civilian lives will be lost. That they will not die is the most important thing. Mandelblit said that the bombardment was currently focused on Gaza’s second-largest city.

More than 40,000 personal phone calls had been made to residents of Gaza in order to inform them when and where to leave, and the Israeli military has sent out over 15 million text messages.

This splits the territory of the Gaza Strip. It is necessary to identify recognizable areas to enable the residents of Gaza to orient themselves and understand instructions, and to evacuate from specific places for their safety if required.

The map was created as a result of the Biden administration’s insistence that Israel reduce civilian casualties. After visiting Israel and the West Bank, the Secretary of State called on Israel to designate safe zones.

Most Palestinians use cellphones and computers, which made it difficult to navigate the map. Track and obey the instructions of the Israeli military through various media outlets and memorize the neighborhood number on a numbered grid, as residents are asked to do.

Zone 55 is where my house was. Heba Usrof told NPR she remembered the last zone on the list as 54. She’s from Khan Younis, where heavy fighting is taking place now.

“They hit again the following day,” she says. An Israeli soldier called our neighbor, and instructed him to evacuate, and everyone else to do the same.

Israeli military Arabic spokesman Avichay Adraee has been posting information — along with videos aimed at persuading Palestinian viewers that Hamas was responsible for their suffering in the war — on X and Facebook since the war began, instructing civilians to flee.

He warned on Tuesday that a main north-south road would be a combat zone because of military operations in the Khan Younis area. Israeli forces would suspend military activity in the neighborhood of Rafah until 2pm, he said.

Adraee’s first announcement declaring a safe passage out of northern Gaza in early November was followed by another announcement the following day: He said that the safe passage was rendered unsafe by Hamas gunfire.

Mustafa, who gave his first name to protect his life and that of his family, left northern Gaza with his family and their belongings 20 days ago and took them to Khan Younis and then to Rafah on Tuesday.

The Israelis told us to go south. We came and found no place to stay. We are all in the streets,” he told NPR. “Hamas should have secured the people, before doing this. They should have secured the people, and secured a place for the people.”

In the coming hours, the Israel Defense forces will launch a large scale attack on your residence in order to destroy the Hamas terrorist organization.

In the past few days, many cellphones in Rafah flashed with messages on their screens calling on people to evacuate from Khan Younis, as a “dangerous battle” was expected:

Internet and cellphone service have been cut multiple times in Gaza. Israel, which maintains a blockade on Gaza, has declined to answer NPR’s request for comment on whether these communications cuts are deliberate.

The calls are hard to understand. Several people who received calls from the Israeli military told NPR they were told to leave their neighborhood.

The U.S. demanded Israel declare safe zones to minimize civilian casualties from Israeli airstrikes in response to the surprise Oct. 7 Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials. Palestinians and international aid groups said that the areas have been insufficient, providing no guaranteed shelter for residents who escape.

They are being squeezed into smaller and smaller areas — as Israel urges Palestinians to escape its air-and-ground campaign, which has left more than 16,000 dead in Gaza, according to health officials in the Hamas-run territory.