ISRAELI troops launched a new assault into the southern Gaza City of Khan Younis today, supposedly targeting Hamas fighters that the military claims still operate there despite repeated offensives.
Israeli evacuation orders triggered yet another exodus of Palestinians from the heavily destroyed eastern districts of Khan Younis, where many had just returned less than two weeks ago, after the Israeli military’s last incursion into the city in July.
Thousands fled on Thursday, carrying essentials like small gas cylinders, mattresses, tents, backpacks and blankets.
Officials from Israel and the US have said they believe Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s newly appointed leader and one of the architects of the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel, could be hiding in tunnels under Khan Younis.
The Israeli military said yesterday that its warplanes struck 30 Hamas targets in the city, including fighters and weapons storage sites. It said troops were searching for Hamas tunnels and other infrastructure while engaging in combat “above and below ground.”
Meanwhile, the US, Egypt and Qatar jointly demanded Israel and Hamas return to stalled ceasefire talks, saying that “only the details” of carrying out a ceasefire and hostage release remain to be negotiated.
“There is no further time to waste, nor excuses from any party for further delay,” they said in a joint statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Thursday that the government will send its negotiations team to finalise the details of the ceasefire “framework agreement” next week.
Israel’s latest destruction of Gaza, ostensibly launched to eliminate Hamas following the October 7 attack, has killed more than 39,600 Palestinians and wounded more than 91,700 others.
More than 1.9 million of Gaza’s pre-war population of 2.3 million have been driven from their homes, fleeing repeatedly across the territory to escape offensives. Most are now crowded into ramshackle tent camps in an area about 19 square miles on the Gaza coast.
With sanitation systems collapsed, diseases have run rampant, health officials say, and humanitarian groups are trying to feed the population. The United Nations says a half-million Palestinians facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
Ghazi Abu Daka, one of the evacuees from Khan Younis, told reporters on Friday that he and his family have had to flee eastern the city four times now.
“Every day there is war. Every day there are rockets,” he said as he carried his son, a piece of cloth on his head to protect him from the heat.
“There is no safe place in the eastern area. Now, we are displaced in the streets and don’t know where to go.”
Yasser Abu Alyan, another evacuee, said he was displaced around six times from the Beni Seheila area east of the city. He said he took nothing with him except his two little girls: “Everything is gone.”
