One last prayer was said, drowned out by the buzz of drones constantly circling in the Gazan sky. The three bodies were then buried in hastily dug holes in the Nasser Hospital grounds in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip. Dozens of bodies were buried there on Monday, January 22, as no one was able to bring them to the cemetery. Israeli snipers have surrounded the area, shooting at anyone who ventures outside the hospital.

Since Sunday evening, the Israeli army has been conducting a large-scale operation in Khan Yunis. The fighting, the deadliest since the beginning of the year, is expected to last "several days," according to the Israeli army. Since the end of the truce at the start of December 2023, the army has concentrated its assaults in the center and south of Gaza, where it has shown the same brutality as during the attack on the north of the Palestinian territory, in November.

"All [Sunday] night, we heard bombings. The walls, the windows, the ground, everything was shaking," reported Léo Cans, country director for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Palestine, who was staying a few kilometers from Nasser Hospital and the coastal area which was hit. "This indicates that these were penetrating bombs intended to destroy buildings or potential tunnels. We could also hear ships shelling."

For the first time, Israeli troops have reached the outskirts of Al-Mawasi, a vast sandy expanse by the sea where thousands of displaced people have set up their tents in recent weeks. The army had designated this area as "safe" in early December 2023, when it ordered the evacuation of the eastern districts of Khan Yunis.

Gaza's health ministry announced on Wednesday that at least 210 people had been killed over the previous 24 hours. Hamas has accused Israel of targeting five shelters housing some 30,000 refugees. Israeli troops have attacked Al-Aqsa University – where displaced persons had taken refuge – and prevented "ambulance vehicles from moving to recover bodies of martyrs and the wounded from western Khan Yunis," accused Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for the local health ministry. Israel has retorted – as it has since the start of this war which has caused the deaths of more than 25,000 Gazans, the majority of them women and children – that the Islamist movement "exploits the civilian population," including shelters and hospitals.

To the west of Khan Yunis – the birthplace of Hamas's leader in the enclave, Yahya Sinwar, and the commander of its armed wing, Mohammed Deif, the architects of the October 7, 2023 attack that killed 1,140 people in Israel – the Israeli army has been seeking to destroy the local brigade's stronghold. The area under attack since Sunday is "one of Hamas' significant centers of gravity," home to "military posts and terror infrastructure" and also "a tunnel network spanning a kilometer and a half as well as a rocket production facility," according to the Israeli military.

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