Israel continued to dismiss US calls to temper its ground invasion as Israeli troops began their bloody new phase of the war and pushed into Gaza‘s second-largest city where Hamas terrorist leaders are believed to be hiding. 

Israeli forces were encircling the southern city of Khan Yunis today, fighting terrorists in intense street battles in some of the fiercest combat of the two-month war.

The focus of the conflict has shifted to the besieged territory’s south following fierce fighting and bombardment that reduced much of the north to rubble and forced nearly two million people to flee their homes

And despite Washington’s desperate calls for Israel to prevent yet more bloodshed in Gaza and provide more aid, Israeli forces, backed by warplanes, reached the heart of Khan Younis yesterday and surrounded the city – trapping the thousands of exhausted civilians who had fled there.

The IDF aims to wipe out the Hamas leaders it believes are hiding in Khan Younis while using innocent civilians as human shields. But the cost of the war continues to mount, with more than 16,248 Palestinians killed since the conflict broke out two months ago, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.

Today, Israeli tanks, troops and bulldozers encircled the southern city after what the IDF said was the ‘most intense day of fighting’ since the war began. 

Israeli air strikes obliterated buildings within Khan Younis today, with the IDF claiming it had killed several Hamas commanders in a strike near the Indonesia Hospital. 

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