For nearly nine months, Israel’s war in Gaza forced Palestinians to flee place to put in search of pockets of security in the besieged Strip.
Israel’s latest mass evacuation order ordered 250,000 displaced people in Khan Younis, Gaza’s second largest city, to leave, while it carries out new attacks in southern Gaza.
The order comes as fierce fighting traps Palestinians in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip and the Shujayea neighborhood of Gaza City in the north.
Here’s everything you need to know about what’s happening in Khan Younis:
Where were Palestinians in Khan Younis told to flee to? It’s safe?
The Israeli army first told the Palestinians to “immediately evacuate to the humanitarian zone”, without specifying where.
About 13 hours later, a post on X told people to head to the “al-Mawasi humanitarian zone.”
Although Israel calls al-Mawasi – a coastal strip stretching north to Deir el-Balah – a “humanitarian zone,” it has also launched attacks against people in that region.
At least 25 people were killed in two Israeli attacks on al-Mawasi on June 21, and about 21 people in another attack on May 28, according to Palestinian officials.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) was forced to evacuate its base in Khan Younis, part of al-Mawasi, on 29 June due to security concerns.
Is the European Hospital also being evacuated?
The Israeli army stated in X that its evacuation order does not apply to the European Hospital, which is in the area.
The call to move towards the Al Mawasi Humanitarian Zone does not apply to patients at the European Hospital or the medical staff working there.
There is no intention to evacuate the European Hospital in the Khan Yunis area.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) July 2, 2024
However, the PRCS reported that patients were being transferred to nearby hospitals due to the order, in preparation for a possible ground attack.
Staff at the European Hospital were told to evacuate, Jeremy Hickey, an anesthetist at Fajr Scientific who was volunteering there, told Al Jazeera.
Videos verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking unit Sanad showed entire hospital departments and areas where displaced people were sheltering being evacuated.
Forced displacement puts them all at great risk, Hickey said.
“Getting them out is extremely difficult because access to transport is extraordinarily expensive… but also because of the sustained and long-term nature of many patients’ injuries,” he told Al Jazeera.
“Mobilizing [them] it is almost impossible and transporting these patients in ambulances is also almost impossible,” he added.
When will an Israeli military operation take place in Khan Younis after the evacuation?
The evacuation order likely implies that “Israeli forces will enter the area within 24 hours,” the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP) said on its latest battlefield. report.
Israeli forces withdrew from the city on April 7, claiming victory over Hamas, but then Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) fighters recently launched 20 rockets at Israel from the eastern parts of the city.
The report states that “cleanup operations” are expected in that area.
Israel’s actions in Khan Younis in April, when they claimed to have “destroyed Hamas battalions”, had already left much of the city in ruins.
Has Khan Younis been evacuated before?
People in Khan Younis were told to evacuate several times during the war as the town came under Israeli attacks:
December 5, 2023: Israeli forces surrounded Khan Younis, thousands of Palestinians fled to nearby Rafah.
February 14, 2024: Israel ordered the evacuation of the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, while Israeli snipers fired at anyone moving within the hospital premises.
April 8, 2024: Israeli troops withdrew from Khan Younis in preparation for a ground invasion of neighboring Rafah, leaving the city in ruins.
May 6, 2024: Displaced people camps in Khan Younis expanded after Israel ordered the evacuation of 1.4 million Palestinians seeking shelter in nearby Rafah.
June 23, 2024: Israeli tanks approached the “safe zone” of al-Mawasi, between Rafah and Khan Younis, days after an Israeli attack killed 25 people, forcing thousands more Palestinians to flee to Khan Younis.
How are Palestinians dealing with this latest Israeli order?
A lack of fuel in Gaza means people walk for miles or use animal carts as they flee, according to Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud in Deir el-Balah.
“This constant movement and forced displacement is affecting a population that has been traumatized and displaced for the past nine months,” he said.
Ahmed al-Bairam told the Reuters news agency that there was no time to take any of his belongings following Israeli orders.
“God knows where we will go tomorrow.
“We came from the eastern zone, then we moved to the European hospital, then we went to Rafah, then we went back to Bani Suheila, then we went back to Nasser Hospital and now we went up to Somood camp,” al-Bairam added.
“This time we didn’t take anything with us,” he said. “There is no transport… I have children with me and they all walk.”
Why is the Israeli army issuing evacuation orders to previously declared “safe zones”?
Israel’s action indicates its inability to achieve its goal of “eliminating Hamas” and its intention to deplete the Palestinian population in Gaza, according to Luciano Zaccara, professor of Gulf politics at the University’s Center for Gulf Studies. from Qatar.
“This demonstrates that they cannot win the war because they wanted to eliminate Hamas physically and politically, but so far the group is still there,” Zaccara told Al Jazeera.
“This also proves that Israel wants to win this war by exhausting the people,” he added.
“In this way, much more problems and damage are created for Palestinians who cannot stay in one place for more than a month or 15 days.”
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
