Israel orders Palestinians to flee southern Gaza city

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — The Israeli army ordered a mass evacuation of Palestinians from much of Khan Younis on Monday.

The evacuation order covered the eastern half of Khan Younis, the Gaza Strip’s second largest city, and a large swath of the Gaza Strip’s southeast corner. Earlier in the day, the army said a barrage of rockets out of Gaza was fired from Khan Younis.

The order suggested a new assault into the city was imminent. Israeli forces fought for weeks in Khan Younis earlier this year and withdrew, saying it had destroyed Hamas battalions.

Last week, the military ordered an evacuation from the north Gaza district of Shijaiyah, and intensive fighting has followed.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that the military was “making progress toward ending the phase of the destruction of Hamas’ terror army.” But he said forces will continue to “target their remains going forward.”

More fighting in the Khan Younis area could further hamper Palestinians’ access to potable water. Included in the evacuation zone is a water line that Israel installed early in the war.

The order suggested that Khan Younis will be the latest target of Israel’s raids into parts of Gaza it had previously invaded in the war, as it pursues regrouping Hamas terrorists.

Much of Khan Younis was destroyed in a long assault earlier this year, but large numbers of Palestinians have moved back in to escape another Israeli offensive in Gaza’s southernmost city, Rafah.

Also in the zone is the area surrounding the Kerem Shalom crossing, the major aid crossing to southern Gaza, and an aid route inside the territory that Israel has said it would safeguard.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the new evacuation order “just shows yet again that no place is safe in Gaza” for Palestinian civilians.

Israel launched its offensive after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack, in which Palestinian terrorists killed some 1,200 people across southern Israel and took another 250 hostage. In its campaign, Israel has killed at least 37,900 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, which does not say how many were civilians or fighters.