GAZA/JERUSALEM - Israeli tanks bombarded areas around two hospitals in Gaza’s main southern city, Khan Younis, on Jan 25, forcing those already displaced into a new desperate scramble for safe shelter, in an offensive Israel says is targeting Hamas militants.

Gaza health officials said at least 50 Palestinians were killed in Khan Younis in 24 hours, including two children in an Israeli air strike that hit a residential home.

The city is now encircled by Israeli armoured forces and under almost non-stop aerial and ground fire, residents said, and a huge mushroom-like column of smoke billowed skyward from areas of Israeli military operations on Jan 25.

Palestinian medics said Israeli tanks had cut off and were shelling targets around the city’s two main still-functioning hospitals, Nasser and Al-Amal, trapping medical teams, patients and displaced Gazans sheltering inside or nearby.

The Israeli military’s siege of Khan Younis’ main hospitals, in what it calls an escalating campaign to eliminate militants in Hamas’ main south Gaza stronghold, has made it near impossible for rescue crews to reach the wounded or collect the dead.

Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is now squeezed into Khan Younis and towns just north and south of it, after being driven out of its northern half earlier in Israel’s blitz of the Hamas-ruled territory, now in its fourth month.

The fusillade from advancing Israeli forces forced many displaced people to set out again in search of ever dwindling places of safe shelter, medics and residents said.

Israel said Hamas had “command and control centres, outposts and security headquarters” in the vicinity, which it described as “a dense area” with civilians as well as the premises of several hospitals, where it said militants were active.

The United Nations said on Jan 24 that Israeli tanks struck a huge UN compound in Gaza sheltering displaced Palestinians, causing “mass casualties”, but Israel denied its forces were responsible and suggested Hamas may have launched the shelling.

The attack, which the UN said hit a vocational training centre housing 30,000 displaced people in Khan Younis, prompted rare outright condemnation from the United States.

“Mass casualties have taken place, some buildings are ablaze and there are reports of deaths. Many people are trying to flee the scene, but unable to do so,” UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territory James McGoldrick said.

Mr Thomas White, director of Gaza affairs for UN agency UNRWA, said two tank rounds hit one of the centre’s buildings where some 800 displaced people were sheltering.

At least nine people were killed and 75 wounded. Agency head Philippe Lazzarini said the death toll was probably higher.

“The compound is a clearly marked UN facility and its coordinates were shared with the Israeli authorities, as we do for all our facilities. Once again, a blatant disregard of basic rules of war,” Mr Lazzarini said.

In Washington, US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said: “We deplore today’s attack on the UN’s Khan Younis training centre.

“Civilians must be protected, and the protected nature of UN facilities must be respected, and humanitarian workers must be protected so that they can continue providing civilians with the life-saving humanitarian assistance that they need,” Mr Patel said.

Israel’s military initially released a statement describing the wider Khan Younis area as a base of Hamas fighters and acknowledged that fighting was taking place near large numbers of civilians.

In a second statement sent following Washington’s criticism, the military said an examination of its operational systems ruled out that its forces had struck the centre. It added that a thorough review was still under way to examine the possibility that the strike was a result of Hamas fire.

On Jan 25, thousands of displaced Palestinians who took refuge in the UN compound were preparing to flee to Rafah, 15km away on Gaza’s southern edge.

Israeli forces had set a 5pm local time deadline on Jan 26 for the compound to be evacuated, according to residents and local journalists at the site. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Ms Juliette Touma, chief spokeswoman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza, confirmed the report.

‘Where do we go?’

Palestinian health officials said at least 25,700 people have been killed in Gaza in the war, including 210 in the previous 24 hours. Israel launched its assault to wipe out Hamas after its fighters stormed Israeli towns on Oct 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 240 hostages.

In Rafah, a small town just south of Khan Younis on the Egyptian border, an air strike hit a mosque, and residents were gathering scattered pages of holy books from among the pulverised ruins.

Several men hoisted up a concrete block and pulled away rubble, revealing the legs of a dead man in jeans. When the body was finally pulled out, they carried it on a blanket under a stretcher, chanting religious slogans.

Several bodies were later laid in plastic body bags at a morgue, where relatives wailed in sorrow, clutching the corpses.

Mr Um Khaled Baker, whose son was among the dead, told Reuters they had fled to Rafah because it was supposed to be safe.

“I don’t even have a tent to stay in. They bombed us and my son is a young martyr. Where do we go? The old and helpless people? What can they do? Where do we go?”

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society, which runs the Al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis, said troops had blockaded its staff inside and imposed a curfew in the area, including its local headquarters, where three displaced individuals had been killed.

Israel says Hamas fighters operate in and around hospitals, which hospital staff and Hamas deny. REUTERS