— Khan Younis fighting displaces 180,000 Gazans in four days: UN
— Israel tells Gazans to temporarily vacate southern Khan Younis areas
JERUSALEM: Gaza’s civil defense agency said Saturday that Israel’s military operation around Khan Younis has killed about 170 people and wounded hundreds since it started on Monday.
“Since the beginning of the Israeli military operation in the Khan Younis area, we are talking of approximately 170 martyrs and hundreds of wounded,” agency spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP.
He said many people had been displaced again on Saturday as the Israeli operation continued.
“The questions is where will these residents go?” Bassal said.
“Anyone who sees the situation in Khan Younis will witness thousands of people spread out on the ground, on the roads, in areas that unfortunately are not suitable for living.”
“With no other options available, they are exposing themselves to death.”
Earlier on Saturday the military issued new evacuation orders for residents of the southern city, after retrieving the bodies of five Israelis and warning of new operations.
The United Nations said more than 180,000 Palestinians have fled Khan Younis since the Israeli operation began on Monday.
The evacuation orders and “intensified hostilities” have “significantly destabilized aid operations,” it added, reporting “dire water, hygiene and sanitation conditions” across the Palestinian territory.
The Israeli military said it launched the operation to halt rocket fire from the area, which already saw heavy fighting earlier this year.
On Wednesday, it said troops had retrieved the bodies of five Israelis from the area.
They had been killed during the Hamas attacks of October 7 and their bodies taken back to Gaza, the military said.
On Saturday, it ordered residents from more parts of Khan Younis “to temporarily evacuate to the adjusted humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi” – the second such adjustment made to the safe zone within a week.
Meanwhile, the health ministry in Gaza said that at least 39,258 people have been killed in more than nine months of war between Israel and Palestinian militants.
The toll includes 83 deaths in 48 hours, according to ministry figures, which also list 90,589 people as having been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7.
Israel’s military claimed a day ago that its forces had “eliminated approximately 100 terrorists” in the city this week.
Israel’s military chief, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said the bodies of five captives recovered earlier this week had been pulled from underground tunnels and walls in “a hidden place”. Troops “were near those fallen bodies in the past, we did not know how to reach them” until this week, Halevi said in a statement.
The Israeli military on Monday ordered the evacuation of parts of the southern city, announcing its forces would “forcefully operate” there, including in an area previously declared a safe humanitarian zone.
More than 180,000 Palestinians have fled fierce fighting around the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis in four days, the United Nations says, after an Israeli operation to extract captives’ bodies from the area, AFP reports.
Recent “intensified hostilities” in the Khan Younis area, more than nine months into the Israel-Hamas fighting, have fuelled “new waves of internal displacement across Gaza”, said the UN humanitarian agency, OCHA.
It said “about 182,000 people” have been displaced from central and eastern Khan Younis between Monday and Thursday, and hundreds are “stranded in eastern Khan Younis”.
At least 39,258 Palestinians have been killed and 90,589 injured in Israel’s military offensive on the Gaza Strip since October 7, Reuters reports according to a statement from the enclave’s health ministry.
A young Palestinian has opened a cafe in the Gaza Strip that is providing electricity and internet service to students and remote workers amid Israeli attacks.
Mohammed Kurayk, who fled Rafah in southern Gaza to the Al-Mawasi area in western Khan Yunis, told Anadolu that after arriving in the area, he sought to address the electricity and internet shortages.
All shops and workspaces had turned to rubble in Israel’s attacks, he said, noting that it took about one month to find a suitable location for the cafe.
The cafe, located on the coast, can serve 40 users. It has quickly become a hub for students, remote workers and journalists who need electricity and internet during the day.
Alaa al-Kabriti, a young Palestinian woman who visits the cafe to work on her design projects, said the fees are symbolic, allowing users to work in a conducive atmosphere.
Al-Kabriti, however, expressed fear about potential Israeli bombings, saying gunboats recently attacked the coast, causing fear and panic for those in the cafe, but despite the danger, she remained to finish her project.
Graphic designer Mohammed al-Amoudi, another regular visitor, said he was unable to work after the attacks began but found the opportunity to resume his work at the cafe.
Interior design student Hebatullah al-Jazzar also frequents the cafe and said it provides internet access that allows her to continue her lessons and projects.
Al-Jazzar expressed hope for an end to the fighting and a return of people to their homes and “old lives” soon.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military has told Palestinians to temporarily evacuate southern neighbourhoods of Gaza’s Khan Younis region so it could “forcefully operate” there, telling them to relocate to a humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi, Reuters quote a military statement as saying.
The military said its calls to evacuate were communicated to the population via several mediums in order to mitigate danger to civilians. UN and humanitarian officials accuse Israel of using disproportionate force in the conflict, which it denies.
The fighting, more than nine months since the start of Israel’s invasion of Gaza following the Oct 7 attack, underlined the difficulty the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have in eliminating Hamas fighters amid continued resistance.
Israeli officials estimate that some 14,000 fighters from groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad have been killed or taken prisoner, out of a force they estimated to number more than 25,000 at the start of the offensive.
