Gaza: Thousands of Palestinians have fled their homes in southern Gaza after Israeli forces bombarded several areas and issued a new evacuation order for Khan Younis.
Health officials reported that during Tuesday’s strikes on many neighborhoods in Khan Younis, at least eight persons lost their lives and over thirty were injured.
Weeks after Israeli tanks withdrew from the region, a spate of attacks terrified the locals. 250,000 people reside in the area that the Israeli military has identified as an evacuation zone in Khan Younis, according to Sam Rose, planning director of UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East.
A small group of Palestinians had recently returned from their displacement a few weeks prior in Rafah, which is located to the south of the enclave.
The European Hospital in Gaza, which provides care for Khan Younis and Rafah, is a part of the order. Eighty percent of the population of the area, or 1.9 million people, are currently displaced, according to the UN humanitarian coordinator for Gaza. She expressed her “deep concern” about rumors of more evacuation orders for southern Gaza.
“Orders for the evacuations of 117sq km [45sq miles] in Khan Younis and Rafah governorates apply to about a third of the Gaza Strip, making it the largest such order since October,” a spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday.
The spokesperson stated that “an evacuation of such a massive scale will only heighten the suffering of civilians.”
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