The Israeli army issued new evacuation orders to residents of Khan Yunis on Saturday, expanding its operation in and around the town in the southern Gaza Strip, where tens of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced for days.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Friday that more than 180,000 people have already fled heavy fighting in Khan Younis since the start of a new Israeli military operation in the area on Monday, after the bodies of three dead were discovered. Five prisoners were killed on October 7 during a Hamas attack in Israel.
The army ordered the evacuation of parts of Khan Younis on Monday, including an area previously declared a safe humanitarian zone. It said it launched the operation to stop rocket fire from the area toward Israel.
On Wednesday, the Israeli army carried out a rescue operation in Khan Yunis and recovered the bodies of five prisoners, including two soldiers and two reserve soldiers.
Of the 251 people kidnapped during the October 7 attack on Israeli territory, 111 are still being held in the Gaza Strip, 39 of whom have died, according to the military.
The army explained that on Saturday, the army ordered residents of several neighborhoods in Khan Yunis to “temporarily evacuate to the humanitarian pasture area,” which is the second such modification in this area within a week.
The new evacuation order has shrunk the humanitarian zone, forcing tens of thousands of people to live in cramped makeshift tents, observers say.
Dozens have been killed in Khan Younis since Monday.
In recent months, the army has returned to several areas of the Gaza Strip after previously saying there were no more fighters from Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that Israel vowed to destroy after an October 7 offensive that killed 1,197 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.
