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Reports of at least 16 dead with casualties pouring into hospital.

Israel’s military has launched artillery and air strikes on eastern Khan Younis shortly after demanding residents leave what it had previously designated a humanitarian zone.

The barrage of attacks early on Monday came less than an hour after the evacuation order. At least 30 people have been killed, according to health officials in Gaza.

The enclave’s population, most of which has been displaced and is in desperate need of shelter and food, has found it increasingly difficult to find security as they have been pushed into shrinking “safe zones” by Israel’s bombardment.

The military on Monday had ordered people to leave areas including the eastern part of the al-Mawasi humanitarian zone in the southern Gaza Strip, saying an operation was planned following the launch of a rocket attack towards Israel.

“People did not even have the opportunity to evacuate,” reported Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary from the central city of Deir el-Balah. “The Israeli forces started their air attacks and artillery shelling in eastern Khan Younis shortly after throwing their evacuation order leaflets.”

She noted that casualties were pouring into Khan Younis’s only functional hospital – Nasser Medical Complex – and doctors were pleading for blood donations.

Israel’s military said its renewed attacks on the area, which it has repeatedly invaded during the war, were a response to Hamas operations.

In a post on X, Israel’s military accused Hamas of using civilians in eastern Khan Younis neighbourhoods as “human shields”, turning the area into a danger zone.

It called on residents, many already displaced multiple times, to “immediately” flee further west in the al-Mawasi evacuation zone.

Due to significant terrorist activity and rocket fire toward the State of Israel from the eastern part of the Humanitarian Area in Gaza, remaining in this area has become dangerous. Accordingly, at this time, the Humanitarian Area will be adjusted. The adjustment is being carried… pic.twitter.com/bk5GGNXn6M

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) July 22, 2024

The order affects more than 400,000 people, according to the Palestinian Civil Defence.

Al-Mawasi has not been immune from attacks either. Earlier this month, a massive aerial attack hit the area, killing over 90 civilians, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.

That attack, which Israel’s military said targeted senior Hamas commanders, was described by those sheltering in the area as a “horrific massacre”, leaving women and children strewn on the tents of their floor and in pieces.

“People feel like the Israelis are playing a chess game with them, moving them from one place to another, and no place is safe,” said Khoudary.

Israel’s wave of attacks in eastern Khan Younis comes as Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads to Washington to address the US Congress, which has approved billions in military aid to Israel during the war.

It also comes as Israeli negotiators prepare to restart stalled captive-prisoner exchange talks on Thursday, according to Netanyahu.

Since the war broke out, Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed 38,983 people and injured nearly 90,000, the vast majority civilians, while reducing much of the enclave to rubble. [There’s no breakdown of civilian vs non-civilian casualties; consider removing part not in bold]

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled that Israel must take steps to prevent civilian casualties and ensure the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, but Israel has rejected the court’s ruling.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has appointed a bipartisan, independent panel to review this month’s assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, officials said Sunday.

The panel members will have “extensive law enforcement and security experience to conduct a 45-day independent review of the planning for and actions taken by the U.S. Secret Service and state and local authorities before, during, and after the rally, and the U.S. Secret Service governing policies and procedures,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.

The first people named to the panel are former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano; Frances Townsend, former Homeland Security adviser to President George W. Bush; Mark Filip, a former federal judge and deputy attorney general to President George W. Bush; and David Mitchell, former Secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Homeland Security for the state of Delaware.

Additional experts could be asked to join the group in the coming days, the statement said.

The panel will have 45 days to review the policies and procedures of the Secret Service before, during and after the rally on July 13 where a gunman fired at Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“We formed this bipartisan group to quickly identify improvements the U.S. Secret Service can implement to enhance their work. We must all work together to ensure events like July 13 do not happen again,” members of the independent review panel said in a joint statement.

Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle said she welcomes the review.

“I look forward to the panel examining what happened and providing recommendations to help ensure it will never happen again,” Cheatle said in a statement Sunday. “The U.S. Secret Service is continuing to take steps to review our actions internally and remain committed to working quickly and transparently with other investigations, including those by Congress, FBI and the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General.”

Cheatle is set to testify Monday before the House Oversight Committee.