Israel kills Hamas commander; Gaza hospitals overwhelmed

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Israeli forces, supported by a growing deployment of U.S. warships in the region, positioned themselves along Gaza’s border Sunday and drilled for what Israel said would be a broad campaign to dismantle the Hamas terrorist group. A week of blistering airstrikes have demolished entire neighborhoods but failed to stem militant rocket fire into Israel.

The military said Sunday an airstrike in southern Gaza had killed a Hamas commander blamed for the killings at Nirim, one of several communities Hamas had attacked in southern Israel. Israel said it had struck over 100 military targets overnight, including command centers and rocket launchers.

Meanwhile, fighting along Israel’s border with Lebanon, which had flared since the start of this newest Hamas war, intensified Sunday with Hezbollah militants firing rockets and an anti-tank missile, and Israel responding with airstrikes and shelling. The Israeli military also reported shooting at one of its border posts. The fighting killed at least one person on the Israeli side and wounded several on both sides of the border.

A spokeswoman for Hezbollah, Rana Sahili, said the increased fighting represents a “warning” and does not mean Hezbollah has decided to enter the war, which began Oct. 7 when Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, killing more than 1,300 Israelis and taking hostage some 150 others. It’s Israel’s deadliest war since the 1973 conflict with Egypt and Syria.

Hamas and Hezbollah, recognized as terrorist groups by the United States, are proxies of Iran, which has vowed to destroy Israel.

In Gaza, medics warned Sunday that thousands could die as hospitals packed with wounded people ran desperately low on fuel and basic supplies. Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave struggled to find food, water and safety ahead of an expected Israeli ground offensive in the war sparked by Hamas’ deadly attack.

Israel has vowed to seal off Gaza from fuel, electricity, water, food and supplies until Hamas frees all its hostages.

The Gaza Health Ministry said 2,450 Palestinians have been killed and 9,200 wounded since the fighting erupted, more than in the 2014 Gaza war, which lasted over six weeks. That makes this the deadliest of the five Gaza wars for both sides.

The U.S. State Department said Secretary of State Antony Blinken would return to Israel on Monday after completing a frantic six-country tour through Arab nations aimed at preventing the fighting from igniting a broader regional conflict.

In Nasser Hospital, in the southern town of Khan Younis, intensive care rooms are packed with wounded patients, most of them children under the age of 3. Hundreds of people with severe blast injuries have come to the hospital, where fuel is expected to run out by Monday, said Dr. Mohammed Qandeel, a consultant at the critical care complex.

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN that Israeli officials told him they had turned the water back on in southern Gaza. Israel’s minister of energy and water, Israel Katz, said in a statement that water had been restored at one “specific point” in Gaza, but did not give further details. Aid workers in Gaza said they had not yet seen evidence the water was back.

The U.N.’s Palestinian refugee agency says Gaza “is being strangled” and the number of people seeking shelter at their schools and facilities in the south of the territory is overwhelming.

“If we look at the issue of water — we all know water is life — Gaza is running out of water, and Gaza is running out of life,” said Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of UNRWA at a press conference in Jerusalem on Sunday.

“Soon, I believe, with this there will be no food or medicine either,” he said.

“Last week’s attack on Israel was horrendous,” he said. “The attack and the taking of hostages are a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law. But the answer to killing civilians cannot be to kill more civilians.”

Israel has ordered more than 1 million Palestinians — almost half the territory’s population — to move south. The military says it is trying to clear away civilians ahead of a major campaign against Hamas in the north, where it says the militants have extensive networks of tunnels, bunkers and rocket launchers.

Hamas urged people to stay in their homes, and the Israeli military released photos it said showed a Hamas roadblock preventing traffic from moving south.

The military said Sunday that it would not target a specific route south for several hours, again urging Palestinians to leave the north en masse. The military offered two corridors and a longer window the day before. It says hundreds of thousands have already fled south.

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees says an estimated 1 million people have been displaced in Gaza in a single week.

The U.S. has been trying to broker a deal to reopen Egypt’s Rafah crossing with Gaza to allow Americans and other foreigners to leave and humanitarian aid amassed on the Egyptian side to be brought in. The crossing, which was closed because of airstrikes early in the war, has yet to reopen.

Israel has said the siege will only be lifted when the captives are returned.

Hamas rocket attacks on Israel continued Sunday, spurring a broader evacuation from the southern Israeli city of Sderot. The city of about 34,000 people sits about a mile from Gaza and has been a frequent rocket target. “The kids are traumatized, they can’t sleep at night,” Yossi Edri told Channel 13 before boarding a bus.

Israeli officials said the goal of their Gaza offensive was to destroy Hamas.

“If Hamas thought we would fall apart, then no: We will tear Hamas apart,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of Israel’s Cabinet meeting Sunday.

Israeli officials gave no timetable for a ground invasion.