Jerusalem: The Israeli military has ordered another mass evacuation in large areas around Khan Younis in southern Gaza, saying its forces will soon operate there in response to Palestinian rocket fire. Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city, suffered widespread destruction during air and ground operations earlier this year.
Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to heavily destroyed areas of Gaza where they had fought earlier battles against Hamas and other militants since the start of the 10-month-old war.
Gaza faces a severe humanitarian crisis with Israeli restrictions on aid and ongoing fighting limiting access to crucial medical, food and other supplies. The Health Ministry says the death toll in the territory is nearing 40,000.
Regional tensions have soared since Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed July 31 in Iran by a presumed Israeli strike. Retaliation has been expected.
French President Emmanuel Macron beseeched Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in a phone call to do everything in his power to avoid a new military escalation that he said would do lasting damage to regional stability.
World leaders have been pushing for a cease-fire in Gaza, and United States President Joe Biden spoke with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Tuesday about their hopes for a deal calming tensions in the
Middle East. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet over the weekend that Israel is already in a “multi-front war” with Iran and its proxies.
Here’s the latest:
Israeli military orders another mass evacuation in southern Gaza
Jerusalem: The Israeli military has ordered another mass evacuation in southern Gaza, saying its forces will soon operate there in response to Palestinian rocket fire.
The orders announced Thursday cover large areas in and around Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city, which suffered widespread destruction during air and ground operations earlier this year.
Associated Press video captured loud blasts and smoke rising over the city on Thursday.
Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to heavily destroyed areas of Gaza where they had fought earlier battles against Hamas and other militants since the start of the 10-month-old war.
The military ordered an evacuation of much of Khan Younis in early July. The vast majority of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people has been displaced in the war, often multiple times, and hundreds of thousands are packed into squalid tent camps.
Others have remained in their homes despite being ordered to leave, saying nowhere in the isolated coastal territory feels safe.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said Thursday that the Scandinavian government was told that Israel “will no longer facilitate Norwegian diplomats to work in Palestine”.
“This is an extreme act that primarily affects our ability to help the Palestinian population,” Barth Eide said, adding that it showed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government “actively opposes the work for a two-state solution”.