Israel’s army has ordered a mass evacuation of Palestinians from much of Khan Younis in Gaza’s south, prompting warnings that troops could launch a new ground assault on the territory’s second-largest city.
“For your safety, you must evacuate immediately to the humanitarian zone,” army spokesperson Avichay Adraee posted on X, in a call to residents and displaced people living in those areas.
Monday’s evacuation order covered the eastern half of Khan Younis and a large swath of the Gaza Strip’s south-eastern corner. Earlier in the day, the army said a barrage of rockets out of Gaza was fired from Khan Younis.
Residents in some neighbourhoods of Khan Younis said they had received audio messages from Israeli phone numbers ordering them to leave their homes. “We received a message on our mobile phones” to evacuate, said one displaced woman Zeinab Abu Jazar, holding back tears.
Israel’s army told people to move to al-Mawasi, a coastal area designated by the IDF as a safe zone and which has become filled with crowded and unsanitary tent camps.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said the new evacuation order “just shows yet again that no place is safe in Gaza” for Palestinian civilians. “It’s another stop in this deadly circular movement that the population in Gaza has to undergo on a regular basis,” he said in a statement calling for a ceasefire.
Much of Khan Younis was destroyed in a long assault earlier this year, but large numbers of Palestinians had moved back to escape another Israeli offensive in Gaza’s southernmost city, Rafah.
As night fell, streams of civilians left the city on foot beside a steady flow of vehicles, as people began making their way out of the evacuation zone.
The order suggested a new assault into the city was possible. Israeli forces fought for weeks in Khan Younis earlier this year and withdrew, claiming to have destroyed Hamas battalions.
Last week, the military ordered an evacuation from the northern Gaza district of Shijaiyah and intensive fighting followed soon after.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Monday the military was “making progress toward ending the phase of the destruction of Hamas’ terror army”. But he said “there will be a continuation to strike its remnants”.
More fighting in the Khan Younis area could further hamper Palestinians’ access to much-needed aid. The area surrounding the Kerem Shalom crossing, the major aid crossing to southern Gaza, is in the evacuation zone.
Most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have fled their homes, with many displaced multiple times. Israeli restrictions, fighting and the breakdown of public order have hindered the delivery of humanitarian aid, fuelling widespread hunger and sparking fears of famine.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report