Hospitals are getting very crowded due to fighting in southern Gaza

The Gaza Strip has been a stronghold of Hamas, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, and the Defense Minister Yoav Gallant

Fighting intensified in southern Gaza on Monday, with medical personnel reporting heavy exchanges of gunfire and a surge of Israeli tanks and troops into areas around hospitals.

The health authorities in Gaza have said in recent days that more than 25,000 people there have been killed since Israel began its campaign to defeat Hamas, adding that more than 63,000 others had been injured.

Naseem Hasan, an ambulance officer at Nasser, said in an interview that tanks were about 100 meters south of the hospital and “can target anyone.” He said one ambulance carrying a person who had been shot in the head was not able to reach Nasser this morning and had to go to a hospital in Rafah — a journey that took three hours.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Israeli shelling and gunfire from drones targeted its Khan Younis headquarters, which also serves as a shelter. People were injured in the strikes, but it was unclear how many. It also said that Israeli troops had encircled their ambulance headquarters, impeding medical transport.

Tareq, a man who fled the fighting in Khan Younis, told NPR that the situation is worse than he thought. He refused to give his last name out of fear about his safety.

The Israeli military said on Tuesday that it has encircled the city, where it says many Hamas leaders are based. The army also said that it had located and dismantled dozens of Hamas tunnels and other underground infrastructure outside Khan Younis.

The Israeli military described the area as a “significant stronghold” of Hamas’s Khan Younis brigade and said that it had killed dozens of Hamas fighters over the previous 24 hours. The military’s claims could not be independently verified.

Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, reported on Monday that several people had been killed and wounded at a school in Al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis, after an Israeli strike. The report could not be independently verified. The people went to the school because the Israeli military told them Al- Mawasi was a safe area.

The Israeli military didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Israeli forces are acting with great precision in southern Gaza and will be expanding their operations, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Sunday.

“The plumes of smoke from the tanks, artillery and planes belonging to the Air Force will continue to cover the Gaza Strip’s skies until we achieve our goals, chief among them toppling Hamas and returning the hostages to their homes,” he said in a statement.

More than 25,000 people have been killed since Israel began bombardment of the strip on October 7, according to the ministry. Hamas-led attack on its territory, which Israeli officials say killed 1,200 people.

Israeli forces “targeted terrorist cells carrying R.P.G.s near the troops, those launching anti-tank missiles, and terror operatives who had rigged compounds with explosives,” the military said in a statement, referring to rocket-propelled grenade launchers. There were ready-to-launch rockets, military compounds, shafts and many weapons located during the activity.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel began the campaign after Hamas attacked the country on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,200 people and taking around 240 people hostage, according to the Israeli authorities. More than 100 of those hostages remain in captivity.

“The road was full of cars where you have mattresses and luggage on top of the cars fleeing from the Khan Younis area, using all means of transportation including carriages pulled by donkeys and horses,” he said. The 1948 Nakba has the same families, faces, scenes of desperation, and anxiety on the faces of children and women as it did in 1948. Palestinians were displaced during the establishment of Israel.

Zaher Sahloul, president of MedGlobal, a nonprofit organization that provides emergency health services in Gaza, said that the number of evacuees from Khan Younis during the current fighting was shocking.

It took us all by surprise that there was bombing and tanks. He said that they woke up and found the tanks in front of their houses. “I saw dead people on the ground, and the ambulances weren’t able to reach anyone to save them because of the shooting.”