Israel-Gaza war live updates: Intense fighting traps thousands in Khan Younis hospital, relief group says

Israel-Gaza war live updates: Intense fighting traps thousands in Khan Younis hospital, relief group says

Doctors Without Borders says thousands of people are unable to evacuate from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis — one of two remaining hospitals in southern Gaza able to treat critically wounded patients — because of the danger of the surrounding area, despite an Israeli order to leave. Fighting has intensified in the city in recent days, and Israel says its troops have encircled it. Israel is trying to create a buffer zone on the Gazan side of the enclave’s border with Israel, Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari said Tuesday, after 21 Israeli soldiers were killed while placing mines as part of the effort.

Here’s what to know

• U.S. strikes early Wednesday destroyed two anti-ship missiles in Yemen that were aimed at the Red Sea and “prepared to launch,” U.S. Central Command said. They were the ninth this month. The Houthi militant group has attacked vessels in the Red Sea, a key maritime shipping route that passes Israel, in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
• U.N. Secretary General António Guterres told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that “nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people” in Gaza, and that the scale and speed of its destruction is unparalleled in recent history. He also called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of hostages.
• Gaza was still under a telecommunications blackout Tuesday, the watchdog group NetBlocks said, the 10th since the start of the conflict.
• The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 25,490 people have been killed and more than 63,000 injured in the enclave since the war began. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack.

2:17 AM: Militant group says 1 dead after U.S. retaliatory strikes on sites in Iraq

Ain al-Asad Air Base in Iraq in 2021.

A militia group in Iraq said one fighter was killed and two injured after U.S. strikes early Wednesday. U.S. forces responding to an attack in Iraq over the weekend that wounded a small number of American personnel struck three sites used by Iranian-backed militias there, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that the operation, carried out at President Biden’s direction and “in direct response to a series of escalatory attacks” against U.S. and coalition personnel in Iraq and Syria, targeted Kataib Hezbollah. The militia is active in both countries and has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks against Americans.

“The President and I will not hesitate to take necessary action to defend them and our interests,” Austin said. “We do not seek to escalate conflict in the region. We are fully prepared to take further measures to protect our people and our facilities. We call on these groups and their Iranian sponsors to immediately cease these attacks.”

Kataib Hezbollah is under the umbrella of the Popular Mobilization Forces, which said in a statement that the Jazeera Operations Command, near the Syrian border, was targeted. It said a training facility in the Jurf al-Nasr area was also destroyed.

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By: Dan Lamothe

2:16 AM: 21 Israeli soldiers killed while trying to build Gaza buffer

TEL AVIV — The deadliest attack on Israeli soldiers in the war in the Gaza Strip has drawn attention to one element of Israel’s postwar plans for the enclave: a buffer zone along the border to protect Israeli communities from attacks.

As part of the effort to build the buffer zone, Israeli reservists were rigging explosives to demolish two buildings inside the enclave’s perimeter on Monday when Hamas militants fired rocket-propelled grenades at the mission, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said. The first hit a building holding explosives, causing the collapse of two buildings and killing 21 soldiers. Another RPG round hit a tank, he added.

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By: Shira Rubin, Miriam Berger and Hajar Harb