Israel expands evacuation order in Gaza’s Khan Yunis, more than 75,000 flee
The Israeli military escalation comes only days before proposed cease-fire talks on Thursday, brokered by the US, Qatar and Egypt.
At least two Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, hours after Israeli authorities issued a new evacuation order in Khan Yunis, forcing thousands of Palestinians to flee again under difficult humanitarian conditions.
The strikes in central Khan Yunis in the south left several other people injured, the official Palestinian WAFA news agency reported.
The military escalation comes only days before proposed cease-fire talks on Thursday. The US, Egypt and Qatar, have all urged Israel and Hamas to return to negotiations in a bid to end the war.
Earlier on Sunday, the Israeli army said the residents of al-Jalaa neighborhood in the northern part of Khan Younis must immediately leave the area “due to many acts of terrorism, the exploitation of the humanitarian zone for terrorist activity, and the firing of rockets” toward Israel.
The area has become a “dangerous battle zone,” the military said in a statement on X, saying it is preparing to launch a fresh operation against Hamas militants there.
It added that it was calling on residents, via text messages and voicemails, as well as social media, to immediately evacuate the area to prevent casualties.
The call to leave the area is the latest in a series of evacuation orders in Khan Yunis in the past weeks after the Israeli army renewed its strikes in the city, where it claims Hamas militants are operating.
Khan Yunis had been designated by Israel as a safe zone, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had been sheltering after fleeing their homes from elsewhere in Gaza since the war erupted last October.
UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) chief Philippe Lazzarini said more than 75,000 people have been displaced in south Gaza in the past few days.
“They are going to overcrowded places where shelters are already overflowing with families,” he wrote on X on Sunday. “Unlike in other wars, the people of Gaza are trapped & have nowhere to go.”
Sunday’s evacuation order comes one day after more than 90 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza City, according to Gaza's civil defense agency.
The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas and Islamic Jihad command post set up at the school, killing 19 militants, which both Palestinian militant groups denied.
The strike on Saturday prompted a wave of condemnations, including from the European Union and US Vice President Kamala Harris, who renewed calls to reach a cease-fire in Gaza.
The UN Security Council is scheduled to meet on Tuesday for an emergency session requested by Algeria to discuss the strike at the school.
Nearly 40,000 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Gaza, while more than 91,000 others have been injured, according to the Health Ministry in the territory, since Israel launched its offensive on the enclave in retaliation for Hamas’ cross-border assault on Oct. 7.
The war also forced up to 1.9 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip into displacement — some multiple times — according to UN figures.
During their onslaught in southern Israel, Hamas militants killed nearly 1,200 people and took over 240 others hostage.
