KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Israel’s military on Saturday ordered the evacuation of a populated area of Gaza designated as a humanitarian zone, saying it is planning a operation against Hamas militants in Khan Younis, including parts of Muwasi, a makeshift tent camp where thousands of people are seeking shelter.
The order comes in response to rocket fire that Israel says originates from the area. Is he second evacuation issued in a week in an area designated for Palestinians fleeing other parts of Gaza. Many Palestinians have been uprooted several times in search of safety during Israel’s harsh air and ground campaign.
On Monday, after the evacuation order, multiple Israeli airstrikes hit the area around Khan Younis, killing at least 70 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, citing figures from Nasser Hospital.
The area is part of a 60-square-kilometer (about 20 square miles) “humanitarian zone” that Israel has been telling Palestinians to flee to throughout the war. Much of the area is covered tent camps who lack health and medical facilities and have limited access to aid, the United Nations and humanitarian groups say. According to Israeli estimates, around 1.8 million Palestinians take refuge there. That’s more than half of Gaza’s pre-war population of 2.3 million.
Further north, airstrikes killed at least five people overnight in Zawaida, central Gaza, according to AP journalists who saw the bodies at the hospital. The count, confirmed by Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al Balah, included a father, a mother and three children.
The war in Gaza has killed more than 39,100 Palestinians, according to the territory’s report. Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The UN estimated in February that some 17,000 The children in the territory are now alone.and it is likely that the number has increased since then.
The war began with a Hamas militants attack in southern Israel on October 7 that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took around 250 hostages. Some 115 remain in Gaza and about a third of them are believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.
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