At least 9 reported killed after Israeli military orders Khan Younis evacuation
An Israeli strike has killed at least nine people in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, Palestinian health officials said Tuesday, within a day of Israel ordering the evacuation of parts of the city ahead of a likely ground operation.
The overnight strike hit a home near the European Hospital, which is inside the zone that Israel said should be evacuated. After the initial evacuation orders, the military said the facility itself was not included, and its director said most patients and medics have already been relocated.
The Israeli military said its forces had struck areas in Khan Younis from where around 20 rockets had been fired on Monday. Targets included weapon storage facilities and operational centres, it added.
It said measures were taken before the strikes to ensure civilians were unharmed by enabling them to evacuate from the area, referring to the evacuation orders. The military accused Hamas of using civilian infrastructure and the wider population as human shields. The Islamist group denies that.
Sam Rose, the director of planning at the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, said Tuesday that the agency believes some 250,000 people are in the evacuation zone of Khan Younis — over 10 per cent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million — including many who have fled earlier fighting.
He says another 50,000 people living just outside the zone may also choose to leave because of their proximity to the fighting. Evacuees have been told to seek refuge in a sprawling tent camp along the coast that is already overcrowded and has few basic services.
The Israeli military says two of its soldiers have been killed and a third soldier was severely wounded fighting in central Gaza. It did not provide details of the battle in a statement issued Tuesday.
The Islamic Jihad militant group said it shelled Israeli supply lines Monday in the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza. The army carved out the corridor, which stretches from the border to the sea, early on in the war to sever northern Gaza from the south.
It was not possible to independently confirm battlefield reports from either side.
The military says 674 soldiers have been killed since the start of the war in Gaza, more than half of them in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack that triggered the fighting.
Over a million Palestinians fled the southern city of Rafah in May, after Israel launched operations there. Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to areas of Gaza where they had previously operated. Palestinians and aid groups say nowhere in the territory feels safe.
Israel began its military campaign in Gaza last October after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and abducted about 250.
Since then, Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 37,900 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. The war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and basic goods to Gaza, and people there are now totally dependent on aid. The top UN court has concluded there is a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza — a charge Israel strongly denies.
Speaking to members of the National Security College, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he believes Hamas is close to being eliminated in Gaza, and Israel remains committed to eradicating the remains of its forces.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said Israel was nearing its goal of destroying the military capabilities of Hamas, which has governed Gaza since 2007. Less intense operations would continue, he said.
“We are advancing to the end of the phase of eliminating the terrorist army of Hamas, and there will be a continuation to strike its remnants,” Netanyahu said.
Published at Tue, 02 Jul 2024 10:47:46 +0000
Beryl remains Category 5 hurricane as it rips through open waters toward Jamaica
Hurricane Beryl roared through open waters on Tuesday as a monstrous Category 5 storm on a path that would take it near Jamaica and the Cayman Islands after earlier making landfall in the southeast Caribbean, killing at least two people.
A hurricane warning was in effect for Jamaica and a hurricane watch for Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac. Beryl was forecast to start losing intensity on Tuesday but still to be near major hurricane strength when it passes near Jamaica on Wednesday, the Cayman Islands on Thursday and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Friday, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Beryl is the earliest Category 5 storm ever to form in the Atlantic, fuelled by record warm waters.
Early Tuesday, the storm was located 595 kilometres southeast of Isla Beata in the Dominican Republic. It had top winds of 270 km/h and was moving west-northwest at 35 km/h.
“Beryl remains an impressive Category 5 hurricane,” the National Hurricane Center said.
A tropical storm warning was in place for the entire southern coast of Hispaniola, an island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
As the storm barrelled through the Caribbean Sea, rescue crews in the southeast Caribbean fanned out across the region to determine the extent of the damage that Hurricane Beryl inflicted after landing on Carriacou, an island in Grenada, as a Category 4 storm.
One person was reported killed in Grenada and another in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, officials said.
An emergency team was expected to travel to Carriacou on Tuesday morning.
“The situation requires our immediate attention, and all efforts must be made to support our sister islands,” said Grenadian Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell.
Meanwhile, Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, promised to rebuild the archipelago in a statement early Tuesday. He noted that 90 per cent of homes on Union Island were destroyed, and that “similar levels of devastation” were expected on the islands of Myreau and Canouan.
The last strong hurricane to hit the southeast Caribbean was Hurricane Ivan 20 years ago, which killed dozens of people in Grenada.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is projecting 17 to 25 named tropical storms and hurricanes this year, the most it has ever forecasted in its May outlook. CBC meteorologist Jay Scotland has more on the forecast and what it could mean for Atlantic Canada.
Beryl has broken several records, including marking the farthest east that a hurricane has formed in the tropical Atlantic in June, according to Philip Klotzbach, Colorado State University hurricane researcher.
The storm strengthened from a tropical depression to a major hurricane in just 42 hours, which only six other Atlantic hurricanes have done, and never before September, according to hurricane expert Sam Lillo.
Beryl is the second named storm in the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. Earlier this month, Tropical Storm Alberto made landfall in northeast Mexico and killed four people.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted the 2024 hurricane season would be well above average, with between 17 and 25 named storms. The forecast called for as many as 13 hurricanes and four major hurricanes.
An average Atlantic hurricane season produces 14 named storms, seven of them hurricanes, and three major hurricanes.
Published at Tue, 02 Jul 2024 11:52:40 +0000
