DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli troops launched a new assault Friday into the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, targeting Hamas fighters who the military claims still operate there despite repeated offensives. American, Qatari and Egyptian mediators renewed their push for Israel and Hamas to reach a cease-fire deal. Israeli evacuation orders triggered yet another exodus of Palestinians from the heavily destroyed eastern districts of Khan Younis, where many just returned less than two weeks ago — after the Israeli military's last incursion into the city in July.
A wave of Israeli airstrikes in the city Friday killed at least 21 Palestinians, medics at the city's Nasser Hospital said. Israeli bombardment also continued in central Gaza, with the bodies of seven people — four women and six children — arriving at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah from airstrikes that hit towns nearby. Civil Defense workers extinguish a car that was hit by an Israeli strike Friday in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon.
With tensions running high along the Israel-Lebanon border, an Israeli drone strike on Friday crashed into an SUV in the Lebanese city of Sidon, killing a Hamas official identified as Samer al-Haj on the main road to the southern port city, Lebanon's state media reported. The explosion engulfed al-Haj's car in flames just outside the sprawling Palestinian refugee camp of Ein al-Hilweh, where Lebanese media reported that he oversaw security matters. Israel c.