Israel-Hamas war: IDF strikes Khan Younis in southern Gaza

The United States announced it would implement a new visa restriction policy targeting those "believed to have been involved in undermining peace, security, or stability in the West Bank."

"We have underscored to the Israeli government the need to do more to hold accountable extremist settlers who have committed violent attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

Blinken said the US had "consistently opposed actions that undermine stability in the West Bank, including attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, and Palestinian attacks against Israelis." 

The statement did not identify any individuals facing visa bans or say how many would be targeted.

Rights groups have documented a rise in settler violence in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant condemned violence against Palestinians by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, saying only the police and the military had the right to use force.

"There is, sadly, violence from extremists that we must condemn," he said. 

As Israel's military aims to root out and destroy Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Middle East expert Guido Steinberg of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs told DW the Islamist-militant group might never be entirely eliminated.

"I think it is possible to eliminate Hamas — that means catching or killing most of the leadership in the Gaza Strip and killing or catching most of the fighters of Hamas," Steinberg said. But he added that it would be impossible to get rid of the group completely as it is not an exclusively militant organization. 

"Hamas is not only a militant organization of some 20,000 to 30,000 fighters, it is also a social movement with a mass following in the Gaza Strip," he said.

Steinberg said between 20% and 30% of the population in Gaza supported Hamas and that even if the militant wing's leadership was killed, it would find more recruits among its support base.

"What is needed is a fighting force that is able to control the situation in the Gaza Strip for months and years to come," Steinberg said, adding that an additional step would be "a political solution in order to win at least parts of [the Hamas] social base over."

Steinberg said it could take Israel "another couple of weeks, perhaps a couple of months" to defeat Hamas, which several countries classify as a terrorist organization, but that then the issue would be "how to win the peace."

Steinberg said he did not believe Israel's government knows what the next step would look like once the war was over.

Officials from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) quoted by the AP and AFP news agencies said their estimate of the number of people killed in Gaza was similar to that of the Hamas-led Health Ministry.

In comments that appeared to come from an off-record briefing, an unnamed IDF official cited by AP said at least 15,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since the start of the Israeli military operation. The official estimated more than 5,000 of the Gaza deaths to be Hamas militants. The Gaza Health Ministry does not differentiate between militants and civilians in its count of people killed and injured.

An unnamed Israeli official quoted by AFP said, "I'm not saying it's not bad that we have a ratio of two to one." The officials said Hamas' use of people as human shields led to civilian deaths and that "hopefully, [the ratio] will be much lower" in the coming phase of the war.

Later on Tuesday, the media office for the Hamas government, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, said at least 16,249 people, including more than 7,000 children and nearly 5,000 women, had been killed in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of fighting in nearly two months ago. It added that at least 43,600 people have been injured and at least 7,600 are missing.

The United Nations and international human rights groups have widely found the Gaza Health Ministry's figures to be accurate and reliable.

US aid chief Samantha Power on Tuesday announced new support for Gaza after arriving in Egypt for a visit.

Power who heads the US Agency for International Development (USAID), said that $21 million (€19.4 million) in new US assistance, including provisions for hygiene, shelter and food, would be going to the people of Gaza.

The latest announcement was in addition to the $100 million that was announced by US President Joe Biden in October.

"The United States continues to work around the clock to overcome diplomatic and operational hurdles for humanitarian access, present solutions to emerging humanitarian assistance challenges, and significantly scale up this response to where it needs to be," USAID said in the statement. 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said troops were surrounding the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis on Tuesday.

"Sixty days after the war began, our forces are now encircling the Khan Younis area in the southern Gaza Strip," Halevi said during a briefing.

"We have secured many Hamas strongholds in the northern Gaza Strip, and now we are operating against its strongholds in the south," he said as the operation in the Palestinian territory entered a third phase.

Israel vowed to destroy the militant Islamist group Hamas after it launched a large-scale terror attack on southern Israel in which more than 1,200 people were killed and some 240 were taken hostage.

Israel responded by bombarding Hamas targets in Gaza and later started a ground offensive in Gaza. The Hamas-led Health Ministry in Gaza said nearly 15,900 people have been killed since the beginning of the Israeli military operation. 

Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the US, the EU and other governments.

Allegations that Israeli women were the victims of sexual violence by members of the Palestinian, Islamist-militant group Hamas during its October 7 attacks have stirred controversy in Israel, DW's correspondent Rebecca Ritters said.

Israeli authorities are investigating charges of rape and other forms of sexual violence possibly committed by Hamas militants. Some of the few hundred people arrested after the attacks are the suspects.

Israel's Justice Ministry said "victims were tortured, physically abused, raped, burned alive, and dismembered."

Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist organization by several countries, denies the allegations of sexual assault or mutilation by members of its armed wing.

Late last week, UN Women expressed alarm due to "numerous accounts of gender-based atrocities and sexual violence" during the October 7 attacks. It reiterated calls for investigating and prosecuting such accounts of gender-based violence.

Ritters, however, said critics dismissed the UN's statement as "far too late." The group "MeToo unless You're a Jew," had called out the UN for not supporting women in Israel in an an online campaign. 

The Israeli activist group Women Building an Alternative posted a full-page ad in The New York Times calling on the world to recognize the sexual crimes committed against Israeli women on October 7.

Ritters said Israeli authorities have been criticized for not looking for potential evidence of sexual crimes shortly after the October 7 Hamas attacks in southern Israel. 

The DW correspondent also referred to a Jewish custom for burials to occur within 24 hours of death, which further complicates the task.

"All of the bodies were buried, making it obviously very difficult to then confirm whether or not these allegations of rape and sexual misconduct can be verified," she said.

Ritters said some statements from witnesses did not appear to match evidence of the claims of rape and sexual violence. She added that Israeli police said no one has come forward saying they were victims of sexual assault.

But an estimated "few dozen" surviving victims and witnesses have already sought help, Orit Soliciano, head of Israel's Association of Rape Crisis Centres, told Reuters news agency, adding that it can take years before a victim or witness comes forward.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) described Tuesday as "the most intense day" since the start of the Israeli ground operation in the Gaza Strip, which has the stated aim of annihilating the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

IDF Southern Command General Yaron Finkelman was quoted as saying: "We are in the most intense day since the beginning of the ground operation — in terms of terrorists killed, the number of encounters and the use of fire from the ground and from the air."

Finkelman added that Israeli troops were now "in the heart of" key Gaza neighborhoods, including Jabaliya in northern Gaza, Shijaiyah in Gaza City and "starting tonight also in the heart of Khan Younis" in southern Gaza.

"We intend to continue to attack and deepen the achievement," he said.

Israel launched its ground operation into the Gaza Strip in October as it responded to the October 7 Hamas terror attacks it said killed over 1,200, with some 240 initially taken hostage. Israel believes Hamas is still holding 130 people hostage. 

The military operation was mostly confined to the northern part of the strip and Gaza City until a week-long truce paused the fighting and saw the release of more than 100 hostages. Since fighting resumed, Israel has expanded its operation to the south. 

The Hamas-led Health Ministry in Gaza on Tuesday reported nearly 15,900 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in the enclave since the start of the Israeli military operation.

The UN's World Health Organization has emptied its aid warehouses in southern Gaza, following "advice" from Israel's army.

Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO's representative in the Palestinian territories, said the WHO had been told the area would "most likely become an area of active combat in the coming days."

Israel had denied ordering the WHO to empty its two warehouses in Khan Younes. 

To that, Peeperkorn responded by saying that no official order had been given but rather oral "advice." He added that if an army delivers such advice and warns it would be unlikely to reach the warehouse in 24 hours, "of course you comply."

"We took out almost 90% of the supplies," he said. "It was a panic movement."

The supplies were moved to a warehouse in Rafah, near the border to Egypt.

The United Nations has warned that creating "so-called safe zones" for civilians in the Gaza Strip to flee Israeli bombing is not possible.

Israel's army has urged residents to evacuate from parts of southern Gaza and head to designated safe zones to escape the fighting. 

But James Elder, spokesperson for the UN children's agency UNICEF, told reporters in Geneva via video-link from Cairo that such safe zones "are not scientific, they are not rational, they are not possible, and I think the authorities are aware of this."

"It's a safe zone when you can guarantee the conditions of food, water, medicine and shelter," he said. "I've seen for myself these are entirely, entirely absent."

The World Health Organization (WHO) also warned that the situation in the besieged Palestinian territory was deteriorating "by the hour."

"There's intensified bombing going on all around, including here in the southern areas, Khan Younis and even in Rafah," Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO representative in Gaza, told reporters. He stressed that the humanitarian aid reaching Gaza was "way too little."

"I want to make this point very clear that we are looking at an increasing humanitarian disaster."

Qatar's ruler, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, has condemned what he described as "shameful" international behavior allowing the war in Gaza to continue.

Hamas-run health authorities in Gaza say the war has killed over 15,800 people in the Palestinian territory.

"It is shameful for the international community to allow this heinous crime to continue for nearly two months, during which the systematic and deliberate killing of innocent civilians continues, including women and children," he said, as he opened a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Doha.

The Qatari emir called on the United Nations Security Council to force Israel to return to the negotiating table.

Qatar helped mediate a week-long truce which allowed the release of dozens of Israeli hostages held by the Islamist militant group Hamas, as well as the release of more than 200 Palestinian prisoners.

The temporary cease-fire expired on Friday. Since then, Israel has resumed its military operations, expanding its ground offensive to the southern parts of the Gaza Strip.

Israel says it is seeking to destroy Hamas following the militant group's terror attack on October 7, which claimed the lives of more than 1,200 people. Nearly 80 Israeli soldiers have died in the war so far, according to the Israeli military.

Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization in several countries including Israel, the US and Germany.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is traveling to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday, the Kremlin has announced.

The conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is expected to be on the agenda.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the "working visit" would include discussions on energy and regional politics.

Putin is also due to host Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Thursday.

The Russian president's foreign trips have become rare since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him in March over the alleged deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.

European Union member states are currently experiencing a "huge risk of terrorist attacks" due to the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said.

Speaking ahead of a meeting of EU interior ministers in Brussels, Johansson referred to a weekend knife attack in Paris, where one German tourist was killed and two people were injured.

"With the war between Israel and Hamas and the polarization it causes in our society, with the upcoming holiday season, there is a huge risk of terrorist attacks in the European Union," she said.

Johansson announced that the EU would make available an additional €30 million (approximately $32.4 million) for "protection of, for example, places of worship."

Israel's military has again struck Helzbollah militia positions in southern Lebanon in response to what it says was shelling from across the border.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Tuesday that its fighter jets "struck Hezbollah launch posts, terror infrastructure, and a military compound" in response to "launches from Lebanon to Israel" on Monday.

"In addition, in response to a launch from Lebanon to the area of Zar'it in northern Israel, the IDF struck the sources of the fire," it added.

"In order to remove a threat, the IDF struck a few other locations in Lebanese territory."

Iran-backed Hezbollah, which is considered a terrorist organization by several countries, and the IDF have been exchanging fire since the Israel-Hamas war began.

The Israeli army's offensive in the Gaza Strip has moved south to the city of Khan Younis, Israeli media reported on Tuesday.

The Times of Israel newspaper reported that Israeli forces were striking targets in the city overnight, citing Palestinian sources.

It said the army attacked targets linked to Hamas, which is considered a terror group by the US, the EU, Germany and others.

Armored personnel carriers and bulldozers were also spotted in Khan Younis on Monday, according to the AFP news agency.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was taking "aggressive" action against "Hamas and other terrorist organizations" in Khan Younis.

It also warned that the main road in the north and east of the city "constitutes a battlefield."

The fighting has left Palestinians with the choice of staying put in the path of the Israeli offensive or fleeing elsewhere in southern Gaza with no guarantee of safety.

The Gaza chief of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, Thomas White, lamented the situation on social media.

"Another wave of displacement is underway, and the humanitarian situation worsens by the hour," he said.

Lynn Hastings, UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, added: "Nowhere is safe in Gaza and there is nowhere left to go."

Welcome to our rolling updates on the conflict between Israel and Hamas for Tuesday, December 5.

On Monday, the Israeli military renewed its calls for mass evacuations around the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

UN officials and people on the ground said patchy internet and electricity access have made it difficult to follow these instructions.

An Israeli army spokesperson said: "We are not trying to displace anyone, we are not trying to move anybody from anywhere permanently."

Meanwhile, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said that almost 1.9 million people across Gaza have been displaced since October 7.

That is equivalent to more than 80% of the population in the territory.

The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric, called for a "political solution" to end the fighting in Gaza.

A corruption trial for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also resumed on Monday, after a hiatus prompted by the war with Hamas militants in Gaza.