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Palestinians once again fled parts of Khan Younis on July 1 amid Israeli evacuation orders. The U.N. said up to a quarter of a million people could be impacted.
The United Nations said Tuesday that up to a quarter of a million Palestinians could be fleeing their temporary shelters in the city of Khan Younis as fresh evacuation orders from Israel's army suggested that further battles loomed in the Gaza Strip's second-largest city.
Israel pulled back its forces from Khan Younis in April after an assault that devastated the city. On Monday, it said that civilians must vacate more than a dozen of the eastern neighborhoods again, an indication that Israel could be going after regrouping Hamas militants.
"For your safety, you must evacuate immediately to the humanitarian zone," Avichay Adraee, the Israel Defense Forces' Arabic-language spokesman, posted on social media.
As Israel's military operation against Hamas stretches into its 10th month, Gazan civilians have been corralled into evermore cramped swaths of land, pitching tents in the rubble of cities they had already fled, or along the seashore. In some cases, families on the beach are so close to the waves that high tide swamps their tents.
Many of the residents in Khan Younis moved there from Rafah after it was targeted by Israel in May, prompting around 1 million people to flee in a matter of just weeks. Until then, Rafah had been the final refuge for civilians in the Gaza Strip.
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Monday's evacuation order came after a barrage of at least 20 rockets was launched from the Khan Younis area toward Israeli communities bordering Gaza earlier Monday, according to Israel's military. No injuries were reported, and the IDF said it struck back against the sources of the rocket fire.
Palestinian child Tareq Qamar, who was injured in an Israeli strike that killed his mother, is carried by his aunt as his brother Mohammed, who was wounded along with him, rests on a bed, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis on Tuesday. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)
Small bands of militants are still launching rockets into Israel and targeting troops, even as Israel's military says it has destroyed most of Hamas's battalions.
Louise Wateridge, a spokeswoman for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which aids Palestinian refugees, said the evacuation order could affect as many as a quarter-million people in Khan Younis — many of whom will struggle to evacuate amid difficult weather and humanitarian conditions. Even if they can leave, she said, it's not clear where they can safely go.
Noting temperatures over 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) "every day" in Gaza, Wateridge said: "Even the healthiest people will struggle to make a move in this heat with lack of food, with lack of water." She added: "And then where do they go? That's the next question.
Source:
https://wapo.st/3xGKyTi
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