Residents of eastern Khan Younis have received leaflets telling them to flee as the UN human rights chief warns there is no safe place in Gaza.
Israeli forces dropped leaflets on parts of Khan Younis ordering residents to evacuate, fearing that Israel would intensify its attack on southern Gaza.
Residents of Khuzaa, Abassan, Bani Suhaila and Al Qarara in eastern Khan Younis, southern Gaza’s largest city, said Israeli planes dropped thousands of leaflets overnight and early Thursday, warning to leave.
The towns, which collectively housed more than 100,000 people during peacetime, are now home to tens of thousands more who fled other areas after Israel ordered residents of northern Gaza to evacuate to the south .
“For your safety, you must immediately evacuate your places of residence and head to known shelters,” the leaflets state. “Anyone near the terrorists or their facilities is putting their life in danger, and every home used by the terrorists will be targeted. »
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the leaflets.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in the besieged territory of 2.3 million people fled south as Israel intensified its ground invasion into northern Gaza.
It was unclear where residents of eastern Khan Younis were expected to flee as Israel continues its bombardment in southern areas where Palestinians had previously been ordered to resettle for their safety.
“We have been absolutely clear that at this time we do not consider any part of Gaza to be safe,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said on Thursday.
As Israeli forces continue their ground attacks in the northern part of Gaza, aid organizations have warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in the densely populated south, as Israeli bombing and siege severely limit supplies of food, water, fuel and electricity.
Turk said the conditions make infectious disease outbreaks and extreme hunger almost inevitable.
Many of those displaced by the fighting – around 70 percent of Gaza’s population, according to the UN – fear they will not be allowed to return home.
Israel said it was working to eliminate the Palestinian armed group Hamas, which launched deadly attacks in southern Israel on October 7 that killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and more than 240 prisoners, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel responded with an attack on Gaza that killed at least 11,470 people, more than a third of them children, according to Palestinian authorities.
The dropping of the leaflets on Khan Younis came as Israeli forces attacked al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical facility.
The situation at the hospital has raised alarms around the world: hundreds of patients and thousands of displaced civilians are stuck inside, without fuel, oxygen or basic supplies.
Doctors said dozens of patients had died recently because of the Israeli siege, including three newborns in incubators who lost power.
Israel has said the hospital sits atop a major Hamas command center, but it has yet to share evidence to validate its claim after conducting raids inside the hospital that caused concern among medical organizations and political leaders.
On Thursday, the human rights organization Human Rights Watch said Israel had not yet provided sufficient evidence to justify revoking the hospital’s protective status under international law of war. .
“Hospitals only lose these protections if it can be demonstrated that harmful acts were committed from the premises,” Louis Charbonneau, UN director of Human Rights Watch, told the Reuters news agency.
“The Israeli government has not provided any evidence of this.”