ISRAELI air strikes on the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza today killed at least 51 people, including women and children, according to Palestinian medical officials.

Israel has continued to strike what it says are militant targets across Gaza nearly a year after Hamas’s October 7 attack ignited the war there, and even as the attention of the world has shifted to Lebanon and Iran. 

Records at the European Hospital show that seven women and 12 children, one as young as 22 months old, were among those killed.

Another 23 people, including two children, were killed in separate strikes across Gaza, according to local hospitals.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Residents said that Israel had carried out heavy air strikes as its ground forces staged an incursion into three neighbourhoods in Khan Younis. 

Mahmoud al-Razd, a resident who said that four relatives were killed in the raids, described heavy destruction and said first responders had struggled to reach destroyed homes.

He said: “The explosions and shelling were massive. 

“Many people are thought to be under the rubble and no-one can retrieve them.”

Israel carried out a deadly offensive earlier this year in Khan Younis that left much of Gaza’s second largest city in ruins. Over the course of the war, Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to areas of Gaza where they have previously claimed they had defeated Hamas.

Separately, Hezbollah said its fighters clashed with Israeli troops in the Lebanese border town of Odaisseh, forcing them to retreat.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military or independent confirmation of the fighting, which would mark the first ground combat since Israeli troops crossed the border this week. 

Israeli media reported infantry and tank units operating in southern Lebanon after the military sent thousands of additional troops and artillery to the border.

The Israeli military warned residents to evacuate another 24 villages in southern Lebanon after making a similar announcement the day before. Hundreds of thousands have already fled their homes as the conflict has intensified.

It’s been almost a year since Hamas staged a surprise attack on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 Israelis hostage. About 100 are still in captivity in Gaza.

Israel’s massive retaliation has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities. But many more are still unaccounted for with many thousands thought to be trapped under the bombed out rubble of residential buildings.