After launching a string of deadly strikes on the area and pressing for a punishing new ground offensive, Israel’s military has issued a second forced displacement order to residents of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.
The military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee posted the displacement order on X on Monday, and it also applies to Bani Suhaila and Abasan, two other nearby villages. Palestinians are urged to travel west toward al-Mawasi in the document.
The post read, “Khan Younis governorate will be regarded as a dangerous combat zone from this moment.”
As Israel’s expanded offensive progresses, the Israeli military issued a separate displacement order for parts of central Gaza, including the town of al-Qarara.
A famine is looming in the area where the new order is also being enforced by Israeli forces. At least 60 people have been killed since dawn in the Khan Younis area as a result of Israel’s relentless airstrikes, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
The majority of Gaza’s population has been repeatedly displaced by previous forced evacuation orders throughout Israel’s 19-month war. Many Palestinians have fled to Israeli-designated “safe zones,” including al-Mawasi, after being bombarded once more.
“Castody in a state”
The displacement order “signifies a potential full-scale attack” in Khan Younis, according to Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, who is reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.
“Many families are engulfed in chaos,” the statement reads. According to Abu Azzoum, “They are trying to get everything they can from their properties and move to al-Mawasi, where the Israeli military has instructed them to go,” adding that two people were killed earlier in the day by an attack targeting al-Mawasi.
Any sense of security for Palestinians has been destroyed, according to Abu Azzoum, who issued the orders repeatedly.
Prior to the war, Israeli forces carried out a massive operation that destroyed most of Khan Younis. Israeli deadly strikes have also been deadly at Al-Mawasi, where tens of thousands of people have fled.
Israel announced in the midst of the newly launched air and ground offensive that it would relocate hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and distribute limited aid within the territory, a move that aid organizations and the UN have long criticized.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated in a video message on Monday that the military would “take control of the entire Gaza Strip.”
He claimed that the government’s plan to allow “minimal” aid into Gaza is intended to lessen the pressure from allies, who, he claimed, cannot tolerate “images of… mass hunger.” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that the aid will not be permitted to enter the Palestinian territory because the country’s two million Palestinians are “starving.”
Since early March, Israel has been putting Gaza under a total blockade, which has caused the country’s population to experience famine there because the country’s healthcare system is still under Israeli attack and is rapidly deteriorating as a result.
Meanwhile, Ahmed Sarhan, one of its commanders, was killed in Khan Younis, according to the military branch of the Palestinian-run Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza.
Sarhan was killed early on Monday morning in an Israeli-backed covert operation supported by Israeli drones and jets.
Source: Aljazeera
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