Israel orders mass evacuation of Gaza after attack on school shelter kills dozens via Reuters
Written by Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO – Israel extended evacuation orders to Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip overnight, forcing tens of thousands of Palestinian residents and displaced families to leave their homes in the dark as tank bombings erupted near them.
The Israeli military said it was targeting terrorists from the Hamas group – which controlled Gaza before the war – who were using the areas to launch attacks and launch rockets.
On Saturday, an Israeli airstrike on a school where Palestinians were sheltering in Gaza City killed at least 90 people, according to the civil defense ministry, prompting an international outcry.
Israel's military said it had struck Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials, allegations both groups dismissed as pretexts, killing 19 terrorists.
In Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, the evacuation order included the central, eastern and western districts, making it one of the largest orders in the 10-month conflict, two days after tanks withdrew from the eastern city.
This announcement was sent to X and text and audio messages to the phones of the citizens: “For your safety, you must leave immediately to the newly constructed area. The area you are in is considered a dangerous combat zone.”
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the United Nations agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said the people of Gaza are trapped and have nowhere to go.
“Some people only know how to carry children, others carry their whole life in a small bag. They go to crowded places where families are already full. They lost everything and need everything,” he said.
The Israeli army said it had struck about 30 targets for Hamas militants in the past 24 hours, including military buildings, anti-tank missile launchers and weapons depots.
The armed wing of Islamic Jihad said the soldiers fired bombs at Israeli soldiers who were in large numbers in areas east of Khan Younis.
Later on Sunday, an Israeli airstrike near the Khan Younis market in the city center killed four Palestinians and wounded several others, medics said.
Smoke rose from the areas where Israeli planes attacked in the east and west of the city. Residents say two multi-storey buildings were bombed.
About 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's attack on Gaza since the war broke out in October last year and the number of people is increasing daily, the Gaza Health Ministry said.
Health officials in Gaza say most of the dead have been civilians, but Israel says at least a third are soldiers. Israel says it has lost 329 soldiers in Gaza.
Israel launched the offensive in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
TENS OF THOUSANDS HAVE BEEN FORCED TO MOVE AT NIGHT
Most of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes, according to the United Nations, and their narrow strip of land has been reduced to rubble.
Palestinian and United Nations officials say there are no safe areas in the area. Areas designated as humanitarian aid sites, such as Al-Mawasi west of Khan Younis where civilians were sent, have been bombed several times by Israeli forces.
Tens of thousands left their homes and shelters in the middle of the night, heading west towards Mawasi and north towards Deir Al-Balah, already full of hundreds of thousands of homeless people.
“We are tired. This is the tenth time my family and I have had to leave our shelter,” said Zaki Mohammad, 28, who lives in the Hamad housing complex west of Khan Younis, where residents of two multi-storey buildings live. they were told to leave.
“People are carrying their belongings, their children, their hopes and their fears and fleeing to the unknown, because there is no safe place,” he told Reuters on the chat app. “We are running away from death.”
(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Angus MacSwan)
