Israel announces another evacuation order for Gaza's Khan Younis

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The Israeli military on Saturday announced another evacuation order for the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, a day after the UN said more than 190,000 people had been displaced in the area in four days.

The latest order comes a week after the army instructed Gazans to leave the eastern areas of Khan Younis, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee.

Israel's military said it announced the latest evacuation by phone call, audio messages, SMS and Arabic-language broadcasts, instructing people to move towards Al Mawasi.

The army said it would “act strongly” against Hamas, blaming the group for using “the residents of Gaza as human shields”.

UN agencies have strongly criticised the evacuation orders and the escalation in fighting, saying they cause mass displacement and disrupt aid operations.

Gaza's civil defence agency said on Saturday that Israel's military operation in Khan Younis has killed around 170 people and wounded hundreds since it began on Monday.

More than 190,000 Palestinians had been displaced in four days in Khan Younis and Deir Al Balah, the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said on Friday.

About 182,000 people were displaced from central and eastern Khan Younis to Al Mawasi, designated as a humanitarian zone by Israeli authorities, while about 12,600 were displaced from Al Bureij refugee camp to Al Maghazi and Nuseirat camp, Ocha said in its latest report.

The Israeli army said its latest operation was a response to rocket attacks towards Israel.

“The adjustment is being carried out in accordance with precise intelligence indicating that Hamas has embedded terrorist infrastructure in the area defined as a humanitarian area,” the military said.

The bodies of 14 people killed in Khan Younis since Saturday morning arrived at the Al Nasser Hospital, local media reported.

At least 30 people, including women and children, were killed when an Israeli air strike struck a school being used as a shelter for displaced people in Deir Al Balah.

Gaza’s Government Media Office said three missiles struck a field hospital in Khadija school. Dozens of people injured in the strike were taken to the nearby Al Aqsa Hospital.

The Israeli army said it struck “terrorists operating a Hamas command and control centre inside the Khadija school”, adding that “numerous steps” were taken to prevent harming civilians.

Scores of people injured in the strike arrived at the already overwhelmed Al Aqsa Hospital, Wafa news agency said.

The Israeli military on Monday issued evacuation orders for southern parts of Khan Younis that had been designated as safe zones. Less than 20 minutes after the order was issued, air strikes started as civilians were getting ready to flee again.

It comes only a few weeks after thousands were forced to flee eastern Khan Younis and Rafah. Israeli estimates show at least 1.8 million Palestinians are now in the designated safe zone, which stretches about 14km along the coast.

“Since the beginning of the Israeli military operation in the Khan Younis area [on Monday], we are talking of approximately 170 martyrs and hundreds of wounded,” Gaza's civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP.

Conditions are poor, raising fears of disease outbreaks days after Gaza's health authorities said that polio had been detected in sewage samples in the enclave.

Five bodies were retrieved from the Al Bureij camp which had been targeted by air strikes on Friday, according to Palestinian media.

In Rafah, at least five people were killed in a strike on an apartment building on Saturday morning.

The Israeli army said “dozens of terror targets” had been struck across Gaza in the past day. In Khan Younis, it said soldiers carried out raids on “terror infrastructure sites above and below ground” while in Rafah it said “precise” operations had been conducted to eliminate “armed terrorist cells”.

The latest offensive comes amid continuing efforts to secure a ceasefire. Mediators from the US, Israel, Qatar, and Egypt are expected to meet in Rome.

CIA director William Burns, who has represented the US in previous rounds of talks, will meet senior Egyptian, Israeli, and Qatari officials on Sunday, Axios reported on Friday.

Mr Burns, as well as US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, are scheduled to visit the Middle East next week, sources told The National.

Hamas has accused the US and Israel of lying in recent statements that said they were getting closer to reaching a ceasefire as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington.

“They are all lying and playing for time, pretending that we are close to an agreement to stop the war, but making sure that the war continues,” Hamas official Mahmoud Taha said on Friday.

“We no longer trust or believe American officials, especially the CIA director currently in the region,” he told The National.