Seen from the sky, this city in the south of the Palestinian enclave looks like a field of ruins. The damage was confirmed on the ground by residents returning to the site and NGOs in the region.
Relative calm has returned to Khan Younes. And with him, groups of civilians in the middle of devastated streets. Since the withdrawal of soldiers from the 98th commando division of the Israeli army on Sunday April 7, more and more displaced people have returned to this town in the south of the Gaza Strip, where some 400,000 people lived before the war between Israel and Hamas.
For the Israeli army, all on-site missions were “accomplished”, as the IDF said in a statement on Sunday. Whether it is a halt or a strategic pause, before a possible operation against the city of Rafah, further south, this announcement follows six months of bombings accompanied by ground fighting, which have made Khan Younes largely uninhabitable. Supporting satellite images, franceinfo examines the extent of the damage.
“Certain neighborhoods have been completely flattened”
On Sunday afternoon, a few hours after the withdrawal of Israeli troops, a handful of Palestinians were already back in Khan Yunis, roaming unrecognizable streets. “It was a big surprise, a total shock”, relates Jehad Abu Hassan, coordinator of the NGO Première Urgence Internationale. Witnesses present on site report countless buildings collapsed or razed. “Certain neighborhoods have been completely flattened, as we have already seen in Gaza City”reports the humanitarian manager.
From the sky, the city center of Khan Younes appears to have been deeply affected by the long weeks of fighting and Israeli occupation. An analysis of satellite images provided by Planet Labs, taken in the first days of the conflict and then at the beginning of April, highlights the destruction “very large scale, across the entire city”as described by Jehad Abu Hassan.
Analysis of the roofs (their condition and number) shows that a large part of the buildings have been damaged, or even wiped off the map. Some were bulldozed, as witnesses told AFP. Instead, all that remains is wasteland, a hypothesis supported by the absence of shadow in the images.
On the ground, the streets of some neighborhoods look little more than sandy tracks in the middle of a pile of concrete blocks and metal beams. The damaged buildings that are still standing look like they could collapse at any moment. Almost no window survived the exchanges of fire and repeated bombings.
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Added to the mountains of rubble “the omnipresent dust”, underlines Pierre Motin, of the French NGO Platform for Palestine. This grayish sand-colored cloud is visible from the sky and is very harmful to the population. “Since the start of 2024, the World Health Organization has noted a surge in cases of respiratory infections in the Gaza Strip”he argues.
Hospitals far from being spared
Invaded by civilian populations seeking shelter, the health establishments of Khan Younes were also targeted, the Israeli army suspecting the presence of Hamas executives and fighters there. After being unable to function at the end of January, the Nasser hospital, the largest in the city, is still closed to the injured. The Muscat clinic in al-Qarara, further on the outskirts, has almost completely collapsed on itself. The al-Salam hospital, located on Salaheddine road, the main road in the Gaza Strip, is also out of service.
The establishment with its green facade, whose row of solar panels can be seen on satellite images, was recognized before the war for its radiology department. It is nothing more than an empty shell in the middle of a devastated neighborhood, one of the only buildings still standing, standing in the middle of the rubble. Marked by impacts from various projectiles, it appears to have been partly set on fire and all of its windows were blown out.
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“To our knowledge, there is no longer any hospital capable of welcoming patients in Khan Younes”, deplores Jehad Abu Hassan. And by extension, in a large part of the southern Gaza Strip. However, to help the population, its NGO “needs to be attached to a functioning hospital”. After coming to see the extent of the destruction, the displaced people of Khan Younes have no other choice but to return to Rafah, to the tent camps managed by the UN “or in overcrowded apartments”he specifies.
Residents “looking for objects or corpses”
Only about ten kilometers separate the two cities, a two-hour walk. “Fuel remains very difficult to find, and very expensive”, points out Pierre Motin. Lacking a car or truck, those who return to Khan Younès often do so “in a cart pulled by donkeys”, he adds. A way to transport more people, and to bring back to Rafah everything that can be brought back to Rafah.
Cans, blankets, mattresses, gas bottles… “People search through the rubble looking for useful objects, foodstuffs, or corpses, in order to give them a burial”explains Pierre Motin, who discusses the reports “pestilential odor in the streets”. Since Sunday, several remains as well as human skulls have been taken out of the ruins, as observed by AFP photographers and shown several videos published on social networks, which franceinfo was able to verify.
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For now, “impossible to imagine returning to any semblance of normal life” in Khan Younes, “where everything was reduced to ashes”, believes Pierre Motin. Questioned on franceinfo, Samira, a resident of the city, explains that her apartment is uninhabitable. “There is no water, no electricity, no internet. We are forced to live in this situation”recounts the one who left Khan Younes at the beginning of January, on orders from the Israeli army.
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Walking through the ruins of Khan Younes can also be dangerous. “It is entirely possible to come across charges or remains of unexploded bombs, alerts Pierre Motin again. Lack of access to water and the destruction of pipes also pose the risk of disease and acute diarrhea.” Even after the withdrawal of the Israeli army, the level of security is not considered sufficient for humanitarian workers to return to the city.
“Especially after the bombing of the World Central Kitchen teams”which left seven dead on April 1, a French medical NGO manager explains to franceinfo, on condition of anonymity. “In any case, very few people will be able to resettle there immediately. The needs remain elsewhere, especially in Rafah”continues this same source, who questions the possibilities of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip in the short term. “Even if a ceasefire were to be declared tomorrow, how could the populations find rehousing? In Khan Younes, Gaza City or in the North, there is no more infrastructure, no more farms, no more of services… There is nothing left to accommodate life.”