Nearly 182,000 Palestinians have been forced to flee Khan Younis due to Israeli bombardment since Monday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
Hundreds of people are trapped as the Israeli military has “intensified hostilities” in the southern Gaza region, sparking a “new wave of internal displacement”, the UN agency said, according to AFP.
Palestinian authorities said Israeli attacks killed at least 14 people in Khan Younis since dawn on Saturday.
At least 12 Palestinians were also killed in an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in the Deir Al-Balah area of central Gaza, the local civil defence said.
The Israeli military on Saturday again ordered Palestinians to leave southern Khan Younis, which it had earlier designated as a humanitarian zone, so it could “forcefully operate” against Hamas fighters who were allegedly firing rockets from there.
It was the second evacuation order issued in a week in an area designated for Palestinians fleeing Israel’s air and ground offensive in Gaza. Many of these displaced civilians have been uprooted more than once as Israel has expanded its war across the territory.
Khan Younis is part of a 60sqkm “humanitarian zone” to which Israel has been ordering Palestinians to escape throughout the ongoing war. The area is blanketed with tent camps that lack basic facilities like sanitation and medical aid, UN and humanitarian groups say.
The Israeli military on Friday claimed to have battled Palestinian fighters and destroyed tunnels in the area.
The fighting, nine months into Israel’s invasion of Gaza, underlines the difficulty the military faces in putting down continued resistance from Hamas.
Israel’s latest war on Gaza has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry. It has also displaced nearly 90 per cent of the territory’s 2.2 million population, according to the main UN agency for Palestinian refugees Unrwa.
The offensive came after Hamas attacked southern Israel last October, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking 250 hostage.
The Israeli military claimed on Saturday that its calls to evacuate were relayed to the displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis via several mediums in order to mitigate danger to civilians.
UN and humanitarian agencies accuse Israel of using disproportionate force, which it denies.
Israel accused Hamas of putting civilians in harm’s way by operating from densely populated neighbourhoods, an allegation the group denies.
Additional reporting by agencies.