News / Palestine

150,000 flee Khan Yunis as Israel intensifies attacks, says UN

Wednesday, 24 July 2024 11:10 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 24 July 2024 11:20 AM ]

Palestinian families rest on the rubble along a street as thousands of Palestinians who fled following the Israeli army's temporary evacuation order for parts of Khan Yunis, including the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone, arrive in an another area of the southern Gaza Strip city on July 23, 2024. (Photo by AFP)

Two United Nations agencies say an estimated 150,000 people have fled the southern city of Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip since Monday, as the Israeli regime continues its devastating onslaught on the besieged territory.

Louise Wateridge, from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), made said on Wednesday that the Palestinians fled the city after Israel announced the latest evacuation order.

"Over 80% of the Gaza Strip has been placed under evacuation orders or designated as no-go zones by the Israeli military," Wateridge said.

The UN official went on to say that people are moving to Dayr al-Balah and western Khan Yunis, which are already “extremely overcrowded” areas.

Israel attacks Gaza ‘humanitarian zone,’ 84 massacred in 24 hours

The regime

“They’ve got limited shelters and limited services available. They can barely accommodate the people who are already in these areas,” Wateridge added.

Separately, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) also said that by monitoring population movements on the ground, it has assessed that 150,000 people had fled Khan Yunis.

The agency said many people were “trapped in the evacuation area,” including “people with reduced mobility and family members supporting them.”

On Monday, the Israeli military issued an evacuation order for eastern parts of Khan Yunis.

Israel orders Palestinians to leave southern Gaza

Virtually every Palestinian in Gaza has been displaced multiple times since October 7, according to the UN.

The occupying regime ordered the Palestinians living there, Gaza’s second-largest city, to urgently leave to an unspecified zone.

Earlier orders told the Palestinians to go to the Mawasi area, but that camp city has repeatedly been attacked.

Such evacuation orders generally signal imminent ground assaults by the barbarous Israeli war machine.

Israel launched its brutal war on Gaza on October 7 last year after Palestinian resistance groups carried out a historic operation against the usurping regime in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Since the start of the aggression, the Israeli regime has been committing war crimes in Gaza, killing at least 39,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring more than 90,000 others.

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