By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Arafat Barbakh
CAIRO/GAZA (Portal) – Heavy Israeli tank fire and airstrikes hit Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip on Friday evening, residents said, after Israel's campaign against Hamas militants killed nearly 200 people in 24 hours.
The sound of gunfire suggested fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants in Khan Younis, some residents said. Planes also carried out a series of airstrikes on the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, according to medics and Palestinian journalists.
Israeli forces have attacked Khan Younis in preparation for an expected further advance into the southern capital, parts of which they captured in early December.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said troops reached Hamas command centers and weapons depots. The Israeli military also said it destroyed a tunnel complex in the basement of one of Hamas's Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar's home in Gaza City.
Twelve weeks after Hamas militants stormed Israeli cities, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages, Israeli forces have devastated much of the Gaza Strip as they pursue their war goal of rooting out Islamist militants.
Almost all of Gaza's 2.3 million people have fled their homes at least once, and many are fleeing again, often forced to seek shelter in makeshift tents or huddle under tarpaulins and plastic sheeting in open areas.
Gaza health authorities said 187 more Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes in 24 hours, bringing the toll to 21,507 – about 1% of Gaza's population. Thousands more bodies are feared to be buried in the ruins of destroyed neighborhoods.
PALESTINIAN JOURNALIST KILLED
A Palestinian journalist working for Al-Quds TV was killed along with several of his family members in an Israeli airstrike on their home in Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, health officials and fellow journalists said.
According to the Gaza government's media office, the number of Palestinian journalists killed in the Israeli offensive rises to 106.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said last week that the first ten weeks of the Israel-Gaza war were the deadliest for journalists, with the most journalists killed in one place in a single year.
Most of the journalists and media workers killed in the war were Palestinian. The report from US-based CPJ said it was “particularly concerned about an apparent pattern of targeting journalists and their families by the Israeli military.”
Earlier this month, a Portal investigation found that an Israeli tank crew killed Portal journalist Issam Abdallah and wounded six reporters in Lebanon on Oct. 13 by firing two grenades in rapid succession from Israel as the journalists filmed cross-border shelling.
Israel has previously said it has never and will never specifically target journalists and that it is doing its utmost to avoid civilian casualties, but the high death toll has raised concerns even among its staunchest allies given.
The US has called for the war to be scaled back in the coming weeks and to move to targeted operations against Hamas leaders. So far, Israel has shown no signs of this.
ISRAEL HELPS DELIVERY VACCINES TO GAZA
Israel said on Friday it had facilitated the entry of 49,130 vaccine doses, enough to vaccinate nearly 1.4 million people against diseases including polio, tuberculosis, hepatitis, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough and meningitis.
The vaccine transfer was coordinated with UNICEF, said a statement from COGAT – the Ministry of Defense agency coordinated with the Palestinians – to prevent the spread of disease in the enclave.
Gaza relies almost entirely on outside supplies for food, fuel and medical supplies, and Israel has limited access except at the southern end. International agencies say the supplies allowed in through Israeli inspections represent only a small portion of Gaza's huge needs.
Last week, Israel bowed to international pressure and opened a second border crossing that it said would double the number of daily supply trucks to 200. However, only 76 were able to enter on Thursday, compared to 500 in peacetime, according to the United Nations.
An Israeli government spokesman said on Friday that humanitarian aid would not be restricted and that the problem was with distribution within the Gaza Strip.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo and Arafat Barbakh in Gaza; Writing by Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Grant McCool)