Israeli occupation authorities on Monday evening ordered the expulsion of displaced Palestinians from Khan Younes in the southern war-torn Gaza Strip, according to local sources.
They said that the occupation army issued a warning in a post on X (formerly Twitter), instructing residents in blocs 47, 106, 108, and 109 in western Khan Younes to move immediately towards al-Mawasi zone in the southern Strip, which the military has previously designated as a “humanitarian area”.
Despite being labelled a so-called “safe zone”, al-Mawasi has been repeatedly targeted by Israeli forces.
The area is currently home to thousands of displaced Palestinian families who have sought refuge from ongoing Israeli air and ground assaults.
Since Israel sealed off the border crossings with Gaza on March 2, the Gaza Strip has been suffering a catastrophic humanitarian and relief disaster as well as a harsh famine, with 1.5 million out of 2.2 million homeless.
Israel unilaterally ended the Gaza ceasefire agreement and resumed its aggression on the Strip on Tuesday, March 18, carrying out a wave of bloody airstrikes across the Strip and killing hundreds of Palestinians.
The death toll reached at least 4,201 with 12,652 others wounded, according to medical sources. In the last 24 hours, the bodies of 52 slain Palestinians, including a body retrieved from the rubble, and 503 casualties were admitted to Gaza hospitals, noting that these numbers exclude hospitals in the northern Strip.
The aggression was resumed amidst concerns over the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the Strip given the ongoing siege and ban on the entry of medical and humanitarian aid.
Israel has waged a military onslaught on the Strip since October 2023, killing 54,470 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 124,693 others.
Moreover, at least 10,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Source: WADA Agency