Israeli airstrikes and a ground operation targeting the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza have killed at least 51 people, according to the Hamas-led Health Ministry in Gaza.
Tanks reportedly entered some parts of the city and surrounding areas on Tuesday evening, with residents reporting gunfire and heavy shelling.
An injured man who reached hospital told the BBC that without warning “tanks rushed towards his village”.
Separately, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said it had hit Hamas targets located in three schools housing displaced people in central and northern Gaza.
The IDF said Hamas members were operating in “command and control centers” embedded in the preparatory schools of Muscat, Rimal and Bureij.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that at least nine civilians were killed at the Muscat School, in Gaza City’s Tuffah neighborhood, and six others were killed at the Al-Amal Institute for Orphans, in the Rimal neighborhood.
Later, the Al-Amal Institute for Orphans said in a Facebook post that eight people were killed and a large number injured, including children and women, when an Israeli attack hit one of the buildings housing hundreds of displaced civilians.
Israel’s continued attacks on Gaza came a day after Israel repelled a barrage of rockets from Iran and launched a ground invasion of Lebanon. It has described Tuesday’s advance into Lebanon as a “limited” operation targeting locations of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah after a year of cross-border fighting.
The IDF has not yet commented on the attacks in southern Gaza, which reportedly took place at dawn on Wednesday.
But a man from the village of Qizan al-Najjar, southeast of Khan Younis, told BBC Arabic that some of his relatives had been killed in the attack.
“Tanks rushed into the area, accompanied by quadcopters that attacked us directly,” he said from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where medical officials also provided updates on the death toll.
Another man in the hospital said: “We were in Qizan al-Najjar when suddenly shells started raining on us from planes and tanks.”
A third man told BBC Arabic: “There was no prior warning. After the rocket fire from Lebanon, we witnessed complete destruction. I barely survived; my daughter is injured and my wife has a head injury that could lead to vision loss. “
He said Israeli forces had also “completely destroyed” a house where displaced families were sheltering.
Gaza’s health ministry warned on Wednesday that the death toll could rise, with another 82 people injured in the strikes.
The IDF has launched multiple ground operations against Hamas fighters in Khan Younis – Gaza’s second largest urban area – since December.
The war began when Hamas gunmen attacked Israel on October 7 last year, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage.
Israel responded with a military campaign in Gaza, which has now killed a total of 41,689 people, according to the Health Ministry.
