Huge smoke cloud erupts after explosion in southern Gaza

(29 Jul 2024)
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4509083

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Khan Younis, Gaza Strip - 29 July 2024
1. Wide of explosion in distance, smoke billowing, UPSOUND explosion
2. Various of smoke plumes rising
STORYLINE:
A large explosion and smoke plumes were seen over Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip on Monday.

It came after Israel's military ordered a new evacuation at the weekend of part of a designated humanitarian zone ahead of a planned strike on the southern city.

The order was in response to rocket fire that Israel said came from the area.

The military said it planned an operation against Hamas militants, including in parts of Muwasi, the crowded tent camp in a zone where Israel has told thousands of Palestinians to seek refuge. It’s the second evacuation order issued in a week.

The 60-square-kilometre (roughly 37-square-mile) zone is blanketed with tent camps that lack sanitation and medical facilities and have limited access to aid.

Israel expanded the zone in May to take in people fleeing the southernmost city of Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population at the time had crowded.

Officials from Egypt and Hamas said Monday that mediators negotiating a Gaza cease-fire deal were still working to iron out sticking points.

The officials, who have direct knowledge of the negotiations, said the contentious points include Israeli demands to maintain a presence in a strip of land on the Gaza-Egypt border known as the Philadelphi corridor, as well as along a highway separating Gaza’s south and north.

===========================================================