Hundreds of thousands are taking shelter in Al-Mawasi and the surrounding region, aid workers say.
As Israel’s military offensive pushes Palestinian civilians into ever smaller swaths of land, the Israeli army said Thursday that Hamas militants had fired rockets from one of the “humanitarian zones” in southern Gaza.
The Israeli military posted videos and maps showing what it said were rockets fired into Israel from the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone. The videos and the Israeli account of them could not immediately be verified. It was also not immediately clear whether Israel would now consider Al-Mawasi, where thousands of people have fled, a legitimate military target.
An Israeli military spokesman, Major Nir Dinar, said he could not discuss future operations. Gazans were “often informed in different ways” about Israeli military activities, Major Dinar said.
Aid workers say hundreds of thousands of people have sought shelter in the region around Al-Mawasi, near the Egyptian border, where an Israeli military airstrike killed 18 people in the city of Rafah on Wednesday, a Palestinian Authority television station said. Authority, a rival of Hamas.
Al-Mawasi and Rafah, a town along the border with Egypt, are among the few remaining places where the Israeli army has told displaced Gazans they can seek safety as the military offensive in southern Gaza intensifies.
Aid agencies have said in recent days that shelters in Rafah are well beyond capacity. People set up tents wherever they could, on the streets, on empty lots or in public buildings, making them very vulnerable.
Rafah has been a last resort destination for many of Gaza’s estimated 1.9 million displaced civilians, and the only place where any form of relief distribution has taken place in recent days due to heavy fighting and restrictions by Israeli movement forces along the main border areas. roads elsewhere in the strip. The UN humanitarian agency said limited aid distributions had taken place only in Rafah over the past four days.
Rafah is also home to the only border crossing through which some foreigners and seriously injured people have been able to leave Gaza, and urgently needed supplies can enter.
The Israeli military has allowed little aid into Gaza through Rafah since the start of the war, including fuel, which it says hospitals desperately need but which Israel says could be diverted by Hamas.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Thursday said the Israeli government had decided to allow “a minimal replenishment of fuel” in southern Gaza to “prevent a humanitarian collapse and the outbreak of epidemics.” It did not specify how much fuel that would be, or when supplies would be allowed in.
Mr Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israeli forces had surrounded the home of Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis. Israeli authorities have said that Mr Sinwar masterminded the Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7. It was not immediately clear whether Israel had confirmed his presence in the house.
“He can escape, but it is only a matter of time before we reach him,” Netanyahu said in a video posted on the social media site
Later on Wednesday, Admiral Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military’s chief spokesman, said Mr. Sinwar was “not above ground,” but did not provide additional details on where they thought he was.