50 Gazans dead as Israeli tanks target Khan Younis

Gaza/Jerusalem, January 25

Israeli tanks bombarded areas around two hospitals in Gaza’s main southern city Khan Younis on Thursday, forcing displaced people into a new desperate scramble for safe shelter, residents said, in an offensive Israel says is targeting Hamas militants.

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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 airstrike that hit a house. The city is now encircled by Israeli armoured forces and under almost non-stop aerial and ground fire, residents say, and a huge mushroom-like column of smoke billowed skyward from areas of Israeli military operations on Thursday.

Israel says Hamas militants use hospital premises as cover for bases, something the Islamist group and medical staff deny.

At the same time, the Chinese military asserted that it has never supplied any weapon to conflict areas and always adopted a “responsible attitude” to defence exports as it rejected allegations of China providing arms to the Palestinian militant group Hamas in its ongoing conflict against Israel.

Earlier this month, quoting the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), a newspaper reported that it discovered a “massive” stockpile of Chinese-made weapons being used by Hamas. Asked about the IDF probe, Foreign Ministry spokesman Sr Col Wu Qian said China never supplied any weapons or equipment to conflict areas. — Agencies