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Israeli forces pushed deeper into southern Gaza\u2019s largest city on Wednesday, surrounding two major hospitals where thousands of people were seeking safety as a strike on a United Nations shelter killed at least nine people, according to U.N. officials and local health officials.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military said it had \u201ccurrently ruled out\u201d that its aerial or artillery fire had been responsible for the strike on the shelter in Khan Younis, where the U.N. was housing about 800 people. In addition to the nine dead, 75 other people were injured, according to Thomas White<\/a>, who helps oversee U.N. aid operations in Gaza. <\/p>\n U.N. officials did not directly blame Israel, but said the shelter, in a vocational training center, had been hit by two tank rounds. Israel is the only combatant in Gaza with tanks.<\/p>\n Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the U.N. Palestinian aid agency, said that the shelter was <\/span>\u201cclearly marked\u201d as a U.N. facility and that its coordinates had been shared with the Israeli authorities. \u201cOnce again a blatant disregard of basic rules of war,\u201d Mr. Lazzarini wrote<\/a> on social media.<\/p>\n At a news conference in Washington, Vedant Patel, a State Department spokesman, called the strike \u201cincredibly concerning\u201d and added: \u201cCivilians must be protected, and the protected nature of U.N. facilities must be respected.\u201d He declined to say whether U.S. officials had spoken to the Israelis about the shelter strike.<\/p>\n The Israeli military said that it was conducting a review of its operations in the area of the shelter.<\/p>\n The Israeli military, which has described Khan Younis as a bastion of Hamas, the militant group that led the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, says its forces have encircled the city after weeks of heavy bombardment and gunfights. On Wednesday, Israeli soldiers were surrounding two major hospitals where thousands of Gazans were seeking safety.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In a statement, the Israeli military accused Hamas of exploiting the civilian population and said that its operation in Khan Younis would continue until it had finished \u201cdismantling Hamas\u2019s military framework and Hamas strongholds.\u201d<\/p>\n Thousands of the civilians now in danger in Khan Younis had fled there to escape airstrikes and shelling in northern Gaza earlier in the war, packing into shelters and tents on the streets. No place in the city is safe, some say.<\/p>\n \u201cOur last night in Khan Younis felt like doomsday,\u201d one Gazan, Yafa Abu Aker, said on Wednesday morning after walking about five miles from a refugee camp in the city to Rafah, near the Egyptian border. That city, too, is packed with people who have been forced from their homes.<\/p>\n In Khan Younis, Ms. Abu Aker said, she and others sought refuge in areas that the Israeli military had designated as safe zones, only to witness violent clashes, military planes flying overhead, bombs falling, shelling from tanks and gunfire.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we had stayed,\u201d she said, \u201cwe would have been buried under the rubble.\u201d<\/p>\n On Tuesday, the Israeli military ordered evacuations<\/a> from parts of the city that include two hospitals, Nasser, the largest in southern Gaza, and Al-Amal. They are among the last hospitals in Gaza still providing limited medical care.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Aid organizations and local officials said both hospitals were under siege. The Palestine Red Crescent Society, which runs Al-Amal, reported \u201cintense shelling\u201d nearby and said that a strike had killed three people outside its offices and in a nearby building. Israeli troops were \u201csurrounding\u201d Red Crescent workers and \u201cenforcing restrictions on movement\u201d around the group\u2019s offices and the hospital, it said.<\/p>\n The Gaza Health Ministry said that Nasser Hospital had for all practical purposes been cut off by \u201ccontinuous bombing,\u201d preventing injured people from getting there and blocking the transfer of patients to a nearby Jordanian field hospital. The field hospital, too, was included in an evacuation area, the United Nations\u2019 humanitarian affairs office said on Tuesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n The three hospitals, with a total of more than 600 beds, account for a fifth of the remaining functional hospital capacity in Gaza, according to the U.N. It said the evacuation area held 88,000 residents and an estimated 425,000 displaced people, packed into about 1.5 square miles.<\/p>\n