The Israeli military has ordered Palestinians to leave a number of neighbourhoods in the southern city of Khan Younis, including areas that had been designated by the military as part of a humanitarian zone,
The Guardian reports.
Palestinian civil defence in the territory estimated that 400,000 people sheltering in the city were affected by the order, which included the eastern part of al-Mawasi, a sandy strip of land without infrastructure where Palestinians have sought shelter in tent encampments in recent months.
The military said it planned to start an operation against Hamas militants in Khan Younis and part of Al Mawasi, claiming they used the area to launch rockets at Israel.
“We were displaced from the eastern regions, they called us to evacuate, we took our children and left,” Osama Qudeih told the Associated Press (AP). “There was no safe place left in the Gaza Strip … We went out walking in the streets, not knowing where to go.”
Another woman collapsed in exhaustion after saying it was her seventh or eighth displacement. “Every day we are displaced,” Kholoud al-Dadas told AP as she clutched her children. “Where are the countries? Where is the world, where are the presidents, where are they? Come and see how we are, our children, and what is happening to us.”
The military said it was adjusting the boundaries of the designated humanitarian zone in al-Mawasi to keep the civilian population away from areas of combat.
Gaza health officials said at least 37 people had been killed and 120 wounded in attacks on and around Khan Younis, and that more casualties were likely to be buried under rubble or left on roadsides because ambulances had been unable to reach them.
The local Wafa news agency reported that a series of fierce bombardments began immediately after Israeli forces dropped leaflets telling people to evacuate. Columns of smoke were visible over the destroyed rooftops of the city.
