The Israeli army on Saturday issued new evacuation orders for residents of Khan Younis, expanding its operation in and around this city in the southern Gaza Strip where tens of thousands of Palestinians have already been displaced for several days.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday that more than 180,000 people had already fled the fierce fighting in Khan Younis since the start of a new Israeli army operation in the area on Monday, following the discovery of the bodies of five captives killed on October 7 during the Hamas attack in Israel.
The army on Monday ordered the evacuation of parts of Khan Younis, including an area previously declared a safe humanitarian zone. It said it launched the operation to stop rocket fire from the area toward Israel.
On Wednesday, the Israeli army carried out a rescue operation in Khan Younis and recovered the bodies of five captives, including two soldiers and two reservists.
Of the 251 people abducted during the October 7 attack on Israeli soil, 111 are still being held in the Gaza Strip, 39 of whom are dead, according to the army.
On Saturday, the army ordered residents of several neighborhoods in Khan Younis to “temporarily evacuate to the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone” which has been adapted, the second such adjustment in the area in a week, the army said.
PHOTO BASHAR TALEB, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
This photo taken in Deir al-Balah shows smoke rising into the sky during Israeli army operations in areas east of the city of Khan Younis on July 26.
The new evacuation order has the effect of shrinking the humanitarian zone, forcing tens of thousands of people to live in cramped makeshift tents, observers say.
Dozens of people have been killed in Khan Younis since Monday.
In recent months, the army has returned to several areas of the Gaza Strip after previously indicating that there were no longer any militants of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that Israel has vowed to destroy after the October 7 attack that killed 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
In response, Israel launched an offensive that left at least 39,175 dead, according to data from the Hamas-run Gaza government’s health ministry, which gave no indication of the number of civilians and fighters killed.