Gaza War: Israeli military orders evacuation of humanitarian zone in Khan Younis

The announcement came amid delicate negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza. US and Israeli officials expressed hope that an agreement was closer than ever. A negotiating team would be sent on Thursday to continue the talks, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Egypt, Qatar and the United States continue to push for a gradual ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that would end the fighting and release the hostages.

Netanyahu traveled to Washington on Monday, where he will deliver a speech to the U.S. Congress and meet with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

In recent months, the Israeli army has launched intensive military operations in several areas of the Gaza Strip that had previously been declared free of Hamas fighters.

On Monday, preparations were made to launch an operation in parts of Khan Yunis province, the city of the same name, which is the largest in the south of the Palestinian territory.

Youssef Abu Taimah from Al-Qarara town in Khan Younis said this evacuation order is the fourth time his family has been displaced.

“We fled under constant air, tank and drone fire,” said the 27-year-old, who saw on the way how “injured and dead people were taken to Nasser Hospital in tuk-tuks (three-wheeled motorcycles) and donkey carts.”

Abu Taimah said his family went to the Al-Mawasi humanitarian area but found there was no room for them in the overcrowded makeshift camp.

“We will stay on the streets, and even the sidewalks are full of people and tents. We are tired and fed up. Stop this displacement.”

Ahmed al-Bayouk, a 53-year-old man from Khan Younis, felt similar despair.

“Al-Mawasi is full of people. There is no empty space,” said Bayouk, who has been displaced for the third time, “each time worse than the last.”

“We can barely settle down for a few days before the army comes, bombs, drives us out and destroys even more,” he said.

“Where should we go? There is a danger of bombing everywhere.”

At the beginning of the year, the military carried out a large-scale military operation in Khan Younis over several months, during which large parts of the city were reduced to rubble and tens of thousands of people were displaced to a nearby humanitarian zone.

“At this time, humanitarian measures will be adjusted,” the military said when it ordered the latest evacuation in Khan Younis on Monday.

“The adjustment is in line with precise intelligence indicating that Hamas has entrenched a terrorist infrastructure in the area defined as a humanitarian zone.”

The Health Ministry in Gaza said that at least 14 people had been killed in Israeli army operations in Khan Younis since this morning.

The war in the Gaza Strip broke out after Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, which, according to official Israeli figures, killed 1,195 people, mostly civilians.

Hamas fighters also took 251 hostages, 116 of whom are still in the Gaza Strip. According to the Israeli military, 42 of them are dead.

According to the Health Ministry of the Hamas-ruled territory, more than 38,900 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza.

Additional reporting by Associated Press