Israeli fire has killed at least 603 people in Gaza since the ceasefire began.
The Israeli military announced on Wednesday the creation of a 15-kilometre-long security corridor in the southern Gaza Strip that effectively splits the city of Khan Younis in two.
The current conflict began on October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian Islamist Hamas militia and others invaded Israel, killing 1,200 and taking some 250 hostage.
The Palestinian city of Khan Younis was targeted by intensive airstrikes overnight, as Israel pursued its ramped-up offensive across the Gaza Strip.
An Israeli military spokesman said that the reports were being examined.
An estimated 1.7 million Palestinians, around 85 per cent of the population in the Gaza Strip, have been displaced in the wake of Israel’s offensive since October 7.
‘‘At the end of the war, there would be no military threat from Gaza.’’
The three hostages are among some 240 seized by Islamist Hamas militants during a surprise cross-border rampage into southern Israel on October 7.
“Hamas fighters had also been killed the previous day in the southern city of Khan Younis.’’
One Israeli strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on Sunday killed 90 Palestinians, Gaza’s health ministry spokesperson said.
