Palestinians flee Khan Younis as Israeli forces attack southern Gaza

After Israel issued evacuation orders, Palestinians fled east of Khan Younis, the second largest city in the Gaza Strip.

During the night and morning, witnesses reported several Israeli attacks in and around Khan Younis. A medical source and the Palestinian Red Crescent said eight people were killed and more than 30 injured.

Patients and medical staff also left the European Gaza Hospital in the area after being ordered to evacuate by the Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military itself has not issued an evacuation order for the hospital.

The Red Cross reportedly helped patients transfer to another hospital.

Louise Wateridge, an official with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, asked where people could go as they were once again forced to leave their homes.

“In this area, people were already forced to survive in badly damaged, destroyed and dilapidated buildings after the military operation in Rafah,” she said.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued a statement on their latest operation in the Gaza Strip, saying they responded to about 20 missiles fired toward Israel from the Khan Yunis area on Monday.

“Overnight, the Israeli army attacked terrorist targets in the area from which the missiles were fired, including a weapons depot, operations centers and other sites of terrorist infrastructure,” it said.

The Israeli military said Hamas continued to “systematically violate international law, using civilian infrastructure and the civilian population as human shields.”

The armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad said it carried out the attack on Monday, calling it the largest attack from Gaza on Israel in months.

Large parts of Khan Younis were destroyed in a sustained Israeli offensive against Hamas earlier this year.

The town, to which some of its residents later returned, is barely recognizable. Nevertheless, many retreated to seek refuge from the Israeli offensive in Rafah.

Now many are on the run again because they fear a new, larger attack.