According to the United Nations, the evacuation order for Khan Yunis affected the largest number of inhabitants of the Gaza Strip since the start of hostilities: up to 250,000 people will be affected.
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The UN warned on Tuesday that evacuations on a “massive scale” such as the one ordered by the Israeli army on Monday in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, only increase “civilian suffering and humanitarian needs.”
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People are facing the impossible choice “They may have to travel, many of them for the second or third time, to areas with almost no space or services, or to remain in areas where they know there will be intense fighting,” lamented Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres, at a press conference.
The UN representative was referring to the order announced on Monday by the Israeli army, which requires the evacuation of a large part of the eastern sector of the city of Khan Yunis. On Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) fired around 20 projectiles in the area.
Khan Younis was a “safe” refuge until a new evacuation order came. Movement and bustle continue inside Gaza, but some choose to stay.
According to the spokesman for the Secretary-General, this order was the one that affected the largest number of inhabitants of the Gaza Strip since the beginning of hostilities in early October, when the Israeli army ordered the evacuation of a large part of Gaza City, in the north of the enclave.
The United Nations estimates that up to 250,000 people will be affected by the order given by Israeli forces to civilians to leave Al-Qarara, Bani Souhaila and other cities near Khan Yunis.
Some 80 percent of Gaza residents are displaced, according to the UN, whose officials said today they were concerned by new evacuation orders issued by the Israeli military.
Some 2.4 million people live in the small Palestinian enclave besieged and bombed by Israel since October 7, 2023, in retaliation for the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on Israeli soil that same day.
The Israeli army’s offensive in the Gaza Strip has already killed 37,925 people, most of them civilians, according to the latest figures from the Hamas-supervised Gaza Ministry of Health.
Hamas’s attack on Israeli soil left 1,195 people dead, most of them civilians, according to official Israeli figures.
Of the 251 people kidnapped during the October 7 attack, 116 still held hostage in GazaOf which 42 are dead, according to the Army.
Source: Observadora
