The Israeli military is widening its area of control into large parts of the Gaza Strip, the country’s defense chief says. Meanwhile, Germany announced that some of its citizens have left the territory.
Hospital officials in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip say Israeli airstrikes in the southern city of Khan Younis have killed 17 people overnight.
The bodies of 12 people killed in an overnight airstrike were brought to Nasser Hospital, officials said on Wednesday. The victims included five women, one of them pregnant, and two children.
Officials said three men from the same family were killed, as were the owners of the bombed house.
Gaza European Hospital received the bodies of five people who were killed in two separate airstrikes, officials there said.
The German Foreign Office says 19 German citizens have been able to leave Gaza with close family members after talks with Israeli officials.
“Since the beginning of the fighting in Gaza, the German government has repeatedly and intensively advocated for the departure and safety of German citizens,” the Foreign Office told DW.
“Today, in close coordination with the Israeli authorities, another 19 German citizens and their close family members were able to leave Gaza.
“They used the Kerem Shalom border crossing. They continued their journey by charter flight via an airport in southern Israel directly to Germany.”
Large swaths of Gaza lie in ruins from the conflict that erupted on October 7, 2023, following the Hamas-led terrorist attack on Israel that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s Health Ministry.
The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but the UN and multiple humanitarian organizations consider the casualty numbers broadly reliable.
