Israel Presses Assault on Hamas’s Last Major Gaza Bastion

TEL AVIV—Israeli forces closed in on the city of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, engaging in close combat with Hamas fighters in what could be the decisive battle of the two-month-old war, while residents fled from the fighting amid a worsening humanitarian plight. 

Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, is defending its last major bastion in Gaza, where Israel believes the group’s leaders are hiding and holding hostages, after Israeli forces drove the militants and much of the population out of Gaza City in the enclave’s north.