Israel-Hamas war updates: Communications cut amid southern Gaza offensive

This live page is now closed. Follow the latest on the Israeli war on Gaza, and the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict, on our new live page, here.

The number of displaced Palestinians arriving at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis continues to increase. To see images and read testimonies, see our photo gallery here.

Israel has told Palestinians to evacuate parts of southern Gaza as it continues to bombard the area, but civilians have virtually nowhere to go. Read our explainer here.

Fact or fiction? Israeli maps and AI do not save Palestinian lives, writes Professor Marc Owen Jones. Read more about why he believes so in this opinion piece.

We will soon be closing this live page. Here’s a recap of today’s key events.

• Israel’s military widens its ground offensive in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis and Rafah.
• Communication services in Gaza have been cut off again, with the Red Crescent warning it cannot reach its teams.
• The Israeli army says it hit a Hezbollah weapons depot in southern Lebanon in response to mortar fire on an army position.
• Palestinian health officials say Israeli forces killed five Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
• The US expects Israel to “follow through on not striking” zones in Gaza that it said would be safe from attacks, National Security adviser Jake Sullivan says.

Palestinian photographer Tariq Dahlan has shared a video showing the challenges Gaza-based journalists face amid a new telecommunications blackout in the territory.

In the video, authenticated by Al Jazeera’s Sanad verification unit, several journalists and photographers are seen on the roof of a building in Khan Younis in southern Gaza to try to connect to the Internet.

Watch below.

The number of displaced people arriving at Nasser Medical Complex continues to increase, with new shelters being set up in the facility’s car park and many people sleeping on the ground in the open.

The hospital in Khan Younis, where teams from Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) provide surgical care to patients with trauma and burn injuries, has also seen a constant influx of new patients, pushing its capacity to breaking point.

“The hospital has been receiving multiple severely injured patients nearly every hour,” said Chris Hook, MSF medical coordinator in Khan Younis.

“With the situation as it is in the hospital – there is no available space any more – it really is a terrible situation. Everyone is genuinely worried about what will come next.”

See the full photo gallery here.

The issue of settler violence is ubiquitous across the occupied West Bank.

People here in Palestine describe settlers, often reservists or former Israeli military, as kind of shock troops for the Israelis here, backed up by active duty Israeli soldiers in attacking, consistently, constantly, belligerently, harassing Palestinian communities across the occupied West Bank.

The issue of settlers is so intrinsic, so penetrative in all of these areas, it has turned the map of the occupied West Bank. It has become a kind of archipelago of islands surrounded by illegal settlements.

And those cases often turn deadly. We heard a report just a couple of days ago of an armed Israeli group of settlers attacking one village in the occupied West Bank. One man was shot. He was chased by the settlers. He ducked into an olive grove, hid behind a vehicle. And hours later, after the dust settled, his family went looking for him and found he bled out behind the car where he was hiding.

The Palestine Red Crescent has shared a video showing its emergency crews responding to Israeli attacks on Gaza once night falls.

Watch below.

Russia’s emergencies ministry said that 120 Russian nationals evacuated from Gaza flew to Moscow today, Reuters reports.

A statement from the ministry said that 30 children were on board the chartered evacuation flight and that so far, more than 880 Russian citizens have been flown home on board nine flights.

The WHO has warned that Israel’s intensifying military ground operations in southern Gaza, “are likely to cut thousands off from health care”.

“As more civilians in southern Gaza receive immediate evacuation orders and are forced to move, more people are being concentrated into smaller areas, while the remaining hospitals in those areas run without sufficient fuel, medicines, food, water, or protection of health workers,” it said.

In a statement, the UN agency also said:

• About 1.9 million people, or nearly 80 percent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, are internally displaced.
• Only 18 hospitals are still functioning throughout the besieged enclave; three are providing basic first aid, while the rest are delivering only partial services.

The US Central Command says 15 rockets were fired from Iraq towards the US base Rumalyn Landing Zone in Syria on Sunday afternoon.

“There were no injuries to personnel or damage to equipment,” it said, adding that “a fuel truck modified to launch up to 20 rockets was located at the site” of the firings.

Washington says dozens of attacks have been carried out against US and allied forces in Syria and Iraq since the war in Gaza began.

COGAT says 180 trucks carrying food, water, shelter equipment and medical supplies were “dispatched” to international aid groups operating in Gaza through the Rafah crossing.

The Israeli agency said the trucks had “undergone a security check” at the Nitzana crossing.

COGAT said that two diesel fuel tankers were also sent from Egypt to the aid groups operating in Gaza “for the operation of vital infrastructure in the Gaza Strip”.

Rights groups say the limited humanitarian aid and fuel deliveries allowed into Gaza since October 7 only amount to a small percentage of what is needed.

Israel’s office for coordination in the Palestinian territories, known as COGAT, has denied allegations from the WHO that the Israeli army asked the agency to evacuate a warehouse in southern Gaza.

“The truth is that we didn’t ask you to evacuate the warehouses and we also made it clear (and in writing) to the relevant UN representatives,” COGAT said in a post on X.

Earlier, we reported that WHO chief Tedros said his organisation was informed by the Israeli army that it “should remove our supplies from our medical warehouse in southern Gaza within 24 hours, as ground operations will put it beyond use”.

The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad says it engaged Israeli forces and vehicles in “fierce clashes” north and east of Khan Younis.

The group also said on its Telegram channel that it targeted three Israeli tanks, a troop carrier and a bulldozer in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Its fighters attacked Israeli military positions with missiles in Juhr al-Dik in the central Strip.

A huge explosion took place in the vicinity of Nasser Hospital where we are standing right now.

We clearly heard the sound of the Israeli missile that struck one of the residential buildings that is so close to the Nasser Hospital, as the relentless Israeli military attacks on Khan Younis City have not stopped for more than three hours.

Israeli soldiers are trying to infiltrate the urban areas of Khan Younis, similar to the situation in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Also, the Rafah district has been under Israeli army bombardment during the last couple of hours.

The situation in the south of the Gaza Strip is getting worse.

Norwegian Refugee Council Secretary-General Jan Egeland says “indiscriminate Israeli bombardment” of civilians in southern Gaza has “reached new depths”.

The ongoing killing of Palestinians “will not make Israel safe”, Egeland said in a post on X.

“Borders to Israel and Egypt must be opened for civilians in crossfire if the war continues.”

“Our humanitarian workers in Gaza currently have zero possibility to deliver aid to the desperate civilian population. Israel is forcing Palestinian civilians to move from one killing field to the next,” he added.

Hamas’s military wing has said in a message on Telegram that it struck two Israeli army vehicles, as well as an army tank.

It said the group’s fighters struck these vehicles with Yasin 105 anti-tank weapons, north of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant was actually observing military operations from the Israeli side in several different neighbourhoods in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

He said his troops are going to remain there and they are vowing to eliminate any Hamas fighters and infrastructure in that area. Remember, the Israeli army said it is in complete control of the northern part of the Gaza Strip. But this is an indication that perhaps it’s not.

Remember additionally, tonight the Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said his troops were engaged in fierce gun battles with Hamas fighters in the northern part of the territory – an indication there is still quite a large Hamas presence there. Additionally, we have seen Hamas firing rockets from the north.

Now the Israeli defence minister said while this ground operation is expanding to the southern part of the territory, the force the military will use is even going to be “worse” than in Gaza’s north.

He’s essentially trying to send a warning to Hamas that the Israelis are continuing however they please, despite pressure from the United States and other international bodies.

Israeli air strikes have hit the vicinity of Kamal Adwan Hospital, located in the north of the Gaza Strip, sending shrapnel flying at the displaced Palestinians seeking shelter there, Al Jazeera Arabic reports.

This photo provided by Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent Anas al-Sharif shows the vicinity of the hospital following the strike.

Israel’s military also shelled the vicinity of the al-Amal Hospital, run by the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the World Health Organization was notified by the Israeli miliary that it should remove supplies from its two medical warehouses in southern Gaza “within 24 hours, as ground operations will put them beyond use”.

“We appeal to Israel to withdraw the order, and take every possible measure to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and humanitarian facilities,” the WHO director-general said in a post on X.

Nir Barkat, who is also the former mayor of Jerusalem, says he plans to run against the Israeli prime minister for the Likud leadership “after the war” on Gaza ends.

This comes after the resumption of Netanyahu’s long-running trial on numerous corruption charges.

Netanyahu has been charged with fraud, bribery and breach of trust in three cases filed in 2019.