Since the end of the week-long truce in Gaza on December 1, Israel has expanded its offensive to the south of the besieged enclave, where more than a million Palestinians have sought refuge after Israeli bombardments to the north.
Israel has intensified its attacks on Khan Younis, declaring it a “dangerous combat zone”. Gaza’s second-largest city, dubbed a safe zone in the early days of the war, is now the scene of devastation and suffering. Fear of Israeli strikes haunts the population while the lack of food and other basic amenities have plunged people into misery amid bloody street fighting.
Meanwhile, Israel continues to attack northern Gaza, attacking Kamal Adwan Hospital on Tuesday.
Here’s what’s happening in Khan Younis and the rest of southern Gaza.
What is happening in Khan Younis?
Two people were killed Tuesday in Khan Younis in Israeli artillery shelling.
A bicycle was reportedly struck in central Khan Younis on Sunday, killing two Palestinian children who were riding it, according to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA.
The city was hit by airstrikes and rings of fire, causing casualties and injuries. The injured Palestinians were largely transported to the city’s Nasser and European hospitals, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday opposed international calls to halt the country’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip, saying the current phase of the operation against the Hamas group ” will take time.”
How many people fled to Khan Younis?
More than a million Palestinians have been displaced from northern Gaza since October 13, when the Israeli army ordered the population to evacuate to the south with 24 hours’ notice.
More than 215,000 displaced Palestinians have found refuge in dozens of UNRWA shelters in Khan Younis.
However, on December 3, Israel ordered the immediate evacuation of around 20 percent of the city, which was home to more than 400,000 people before war broke out on October 7. The area marked for evacuation included 21 shelters and 50,000 internally displaced people, mostly from northern Gaza, according to OCHA.
Many of those displaced in Khan Younis had to move to the town of Rafah, near the Egyptian border, some even moving for the fourth time since the violence began.
Today, thousands of displaced people from Khan Younis itself, as well as from northern Gaza, are crowded into the dangerously overcrowded al-Fukhari neighborhood, south of Khan Younis. Hospitals and schools in the region are filled beyond capacity as the Israeli army continues to order Palestinians to move further south.
Shrinking space and the increasing risk of health problems and infections due to lack of water are a growing cause for concern.
Attacks on southern Gaza
Thousands of Palestinians were forced to flee further south to the town of Rafah. Twenty Palestinians, including seven children and at least five women, were killed in Israeli attacks on Rafah on Tuesday. Other air attacks are reported.
Martin Griffiths, the U.N. humanitarian affairs coordinator, said his organization was hopeful and informed that once the war moved to southern Gaza, there would be a different, more focused approach to fights.
“(But) what happened is that the assault on southern Gaza was no less than on the north. This is currently raging in Khan Younis and threatening Rafah. The population compression is greater. We cannot be sure that any of our operating points are safe,” he told Tel Aviv Tribune.
Central Gaza was not spared either: an Israeli airstrike razed a residential building housing some 80 people in the Maghazi refugee camp overnight, killing at least 22 people on Monday.
Israeli airstrikes and brutal ground invasion have killed at least 18,205 Palestinians and injured 49,645 others. More than 80 percent of the victims are civilians.
Do residents of southern Gaza have access to food?
UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, says “every Palestinian in Gaza is going hungry” and warns the world is witnessing “genocide”.
UN officials and rights groups have urged Israel to speed up the deployment of humanitarian aid to Gaza by opening the southern Karem Abu Salem (Karem Shalom) border with Israel.
Israel announced it would carry out security checks of aid to Karem Abu Salem starting Tuesday. The first batch of humanitarian trucks has been inspected and on their way to the Rafah border.
Palestinians remaining in the north are going hungry as virtually no humanitarian aid has reached the area devastated by Israel’s relentless bombardment.
