At least nine people were killed and another 75 wounded Wednesday in Khan Younis as tank shelling hit a United Nations training center, where 800 displaced Palestinians were housed in the southern Gaza city, a U.N. relief official said.
Israeli forces were reported advancing through the city in the fourth month of the war with Hamas militants. Palestinian officials said Israeli forces cut off access to southern Gaza's main hospitals and the key escape route for hundreds of thousands of people who have sought refuge in Khan Younis from fighting in central and northern Gaza.
Palestinians displayed video showing black smoke pouring into the sky above the training center run by UNRWA, the U.N. relief organization for Palestinians.
The U.S., which has been a key Israeli ally in its war against Hamas, condemned the latest assault that killed civilians, with the State Department saying, "We deplore today's attack on the U.N.'s Khan Younis training center."
State Department spokesman Vedant Patel added, "You've heard me say it before, you've heard [Secretary of State Antony Blinken] say it before, but civilians must be protected, and the protected nature of U.N. facilities must be respected. And humanitarian workers must be protected so that they can continue providing civilians with the life-saving humanitarian assistance that they need."
Asked about the shelling, the Israeli military said the wider Khan Younis area was a significant base of Hamas militants.
"Dismantling Hamas' military framework in western Khan Younis is the heart of the logic behind the operation," it said.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, assailed the attack and said the number of dead was likely to increase.
"Once again, a blatant disregard of basic rules of war," Lazzarini said on X, adding that the compound had been clearly marked as a U.N. facility, and its coordinates had been shared with Israeli authorities.
Meanwhile, talks are continuing on a new 30-day cease-fire during which Israeli hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel would be freed and more aid would enter Gaza, the narrow territory along the Mediterranean Sea.
U.S. special envoy Brett McGurk was in Doha, Qatar, to discuss the possibility of a halt in the fighting. A weeklong truce in late November led to the release of about 100 Israeli hostages and 240 Palestinians from Israeli detention.
The war started October 7 with the Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and the seizure of the hostages. Israel's counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 25,000 people, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.
But the fighting rages on, with U.N. relief chief in Gaza Thomas White announcing the newest attack on X: "Attack on Khan Younis Training Centre this afternoon — two tank rounds hit building that shelters 800 people — reports now 9 dead and 75 injured."
The Israeli military said it had killed "numerous" squads of gunmen "with sniper, tank and aerial fire" in the Khan Younis area.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said in a statement: "The occupation is isolating hospitals in Khan Younis and carrying out massacres in the western area of the city."
Israel said its troops carried out airstrikes and ground attacks throughout Gaza on Wednesday, while warning people in the northern parts of Khan Younis to evacuate, the latest such order that Israel said is meant to protect civilians from the fighting.
But with the war moving further south, and nearly all the population having fled their homes, there are fewer and fewer safe places for civilians to go.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Tuesday of the "heartbreaking and catastrophic" effects of the war on Palestinian civilians.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the evacuation order in Khan Younis affected an area with 88,000 residents, in addition to an estimated 425,000 displaced people sheltering in schools and other sites. The area is also home to 20% of the "remaining partially functioning hospitals across the Gaza Strip," the agency said.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
