“LIKE APOCALYPSE”
Khan Yunis resident Mohammed Sarhan told AFP that Gaza’s main southern city “felt like the apocalypse”.
“There was gunfire coming from every apartment, fire belts, F-16 warplanes and helicopters firing,” he said.
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee called on Gazans in the city and nearby areas to “immediately” leave the “dangerous combat zone”.
AFPTV footage from Khan Yunis’s Nasser Hospital showed a young boy in a tracksuit being treated as two other boys, both barefoot and bleeding, sat on the floor.
Further north in Deir el-Balah, Ayman Badwan mourned the loss of his brother in an attack.
“We are exhausted and drained – we can’t take it anymore,” he told AFP.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.
Gaza’s health ministry said Monday that at least 3,340 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,486.
With negotiators meeting in Qatar in recent days, Netanyahu has signalled that Israel was open to a deal that would include “ending the fighting”, with all hostages released, Hamas leaders exiled and Gaza disarmed.
