Israel carries out new raids in Gaza as Netanyahu visits US

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Mohammad Salem

CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli forces carried out new raids in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to address the U.S. Congress.

The latest Israeli attacks destroyed homes in towns east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza and thousands of people were forced to head west to seek shelter, residents said.

The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said it had received distress calls from residents trapped in their homes in Bani Suhaila, east of Khan Younis, but were unable to reach the town.

Medics later said two Palestinians had been killed in an airstrike on Bani Suhaila, where the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas said fighters had detonated a bomb against an Israeli army personnel carrier.

The Israeli military, which is trying to eradicate Hamas after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, said it had been operating in areas from which fighters had been able to fire rockets into Israel and attack Israeli troops.

Gaza health officials said Israeli military strikes in the past 24 hours had killed at least 55 people, the latest casualties in a war that health authorities in the enclave say has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians.

"Where should we go? Shall we cross into the sea?" said Ghada, who has been displaced with her family six times during the war, via a chat app from Hamad City in northwestern Khan Younis.

"We are exhausted, starved, and want the war to end now, now not an hour later."

Residents said they had been ordered to head west towards a designated humanitarian area but that the area was now unsafe. The Israeli military issued the evacuation orders on social media, and some residents received orders to leave by phone.

Israeli forces also mounted airstrikes on several areas of central and northern Gaza, including one on Al-Bureij camp in central Gaza which health officials said killed nine people.

In the southern area of Rafah, the military said it engaged in close-quarter combat with militants.

"During scans in the area, the troops located a tunnel shaft, a large number of weapons, and night vision equipment inside a children's bedroom in a civilian building," the military said.

One soldier was seriously hurt during combat on Wednesday, said the military, which has so far lost 326 troops in Gaza.

The Palestinian Health Ministry does not distinguish between combatant and non-combatants in its fatality reports but local health officials say most of the Palestinians killed have been civilians. Israel says at least a third are fighters.

PALESTINIANS CRITICISE U.S.

Hamas-led fighters triggered the war on Oct. 7 by storming into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 captives, according to Israeli tallies. Some 120 hostages are still being held though Israel believes one in three are dead.

Some Palestinians who gathered at a hospital in Khan Younis before funerals criticised the United States, Israel's most important international ally, for welcoming Netanyahu.

He was due to address Congress later on Wednesday and to meet President Joe Biden at the White House on Thursday. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he would meet Netanyahu in Florida on Friday.

"The United States is a main partner in what is happening in Gaza. We are being killed because of the United States. We are being slaughtered by American planes, American ships, American tanks, and American troops," said Kazem Abu Taha, a displaced resident from Rafah.

Netanyahu has said a deal to release Israelis from captivity in Gaza could be nearing, but Hamas officials say they see no change in Israel's stance. An Israeli delegation would take part in ceasefire talks, mediated by Washington, Cairo and Egypt, next week, an Israeli official said on Wednesday.

Hamas wants a ceasefire agreement to end the war in Gaza. Netanyahu says the war cannot end before Hamas is eradicated.

Families of some of the hostages urged Netanyahu to do more for their captured relatives.

"At this crucial moment, the Prime Minister's trip to Washington, D.C. holds no significance unless it includes the words: 'There's a deal,'The Hostages Families Forum said.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo and Mohammad Salem in Gaza, Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem and Washington bureau, Editing by Timothy Heritage and Angus MacSwan)