Israeli tanks batter hospital districts in Gaza’s Khan Younis

Israeli forces relentlessly bombarded areas around two hospitals in Gaza’s main southern city Khan Younis on Thursday, pinning down large numbers of displaced people, residents said, in an offensive to take Hamas’ main stronghold in the enclave’s south.
Gaza health officials said at least 50 Palestinians had been killed in Khan Younis in the past 24 hours, including two children in an Israeli air strike that hit a residential home.
The city is now encircled by Israeli armoured forces and under almost non-stop aerial and ground fire, residents say.
Palestinian medics said Israeli tanks had cut off and were shelling targets around the city’s two main still-functioning hospitals, Nasser and Al-Amal, trapping medical teams, patients and displaced people sheltering inside or nearby.
Most of the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million population is now squeezed into Khan Younis and towns just north and south of it, after being driven out of its northern half earlier in Israel’s blitz of the Hamas-ruled territory, now in its fourth month.
Israeli forces’ siege of Khan Younis’ main hospitals, which Israel says Hamas militants use as bases for attacks – something the Islamist group and hospital staff deny – have made it near impossible for rescue crews to reach the wounded and dead.