Israel orders extra Gazans to flee, bombs areas the place it sends them By Reuters

By Arafat Barbakh and Mohammed Salem

GAZA (Reuters) -Israel ordered individuals out of swathes of the primary southern metropolis within the Gaza Strip on Monday because it pressed its floor marketing campaign deep into the south, sending determined residents fleeing even because it dropped bombs on areas the place it instructed them to go.

Israel’s navy posted a map on X on Monday morning with round 1 / 4 of town of Khan Younis marked off in yellow as territory that have to be evacuated without delay. Three arrows pointed south and west, telling individuals to go in direction of the Mediterranean coast and in direction of Rafah, close to the Egyptian border.

The Israeli navy’s chief Arabic-language spokesperson later mentioned in a submit on X that the central street out of Khan Younis to the north “constitutes a battlefield” and was now shut. Entry can be permitted on the western outskirts of town, whereas in Rafah, a brief “tactical suspension of navy actions” would enable entry till the early afternoon.

In Rafah, bombing at one website in a single day had torn a crater the dimensions of a basketball court docket out of the earth. A lifeless toddler’s naked toes and black trousers poked out from underneath a pile of rubble. Males struggled with their naked fingers to maneuver a piece of the concrete that had crushed the kid.

Later they chanted “God is Nice” and wept as they marched by means of the ruins carrying the physique in a bundle and that of one other small youngster physique wrapped in a blanket.

“We have been asleep and secure, they instructed us it was a secure space, Rafah and all,” mentioned Salah al-Arja, proprietor of one of many homes destroyed on the website.

“There have been kids, girls and martyrs,” he mentioned. “They let you know it’s a secure space, however there is no such thing as a secure space in all the Gaza Strip, it’s all lies and manipulations.”

Israel blames Hamas for placing civilians in peril by working from civilian areas, together with in tunnels which may solely be destroyed by massive bombs. Hamas denies it does so.

As many as 80 p.c of Gaza’s 2.3 million individuals have fled their properties in an Israeli bombing marketing campaign that has decreased a lot of the crowded coastal strip to a desolate wasteland. Medical officers within the enclave say bombing has killed greater than 15,500 individuals, with 1000’s extra lacking and feared buried in rubble.

Israel launched its assault to annihilate Gaza’s ruling Hamas Islamists in retaliation for an Oct. 7 cross-border assault by its gunmen, who killed 1,200 individuals and seized 240 hostages in keeping with Israeli tallies.

Israeli forces largely captured the northern half of Gaza in November, and since a week-long truce collapsed on Friday they’ve swiftly pushed deep into the southern half. Tanks driving into Gaza from the border fence within the east alongside the street that divides Khan Younis from town of Deir al-Balah additional north have reached a flour mill midway to the Mediterranean coast, slicing off the primary north-south route, residents say.

ISRAEL’S GOALS IN NORTH ‘ALMOST MET’

“The objectives within the northern part have virtually been met,” the commander of Israel’s armoured corps, Brigadier-Common Hisham Ibrahim, instructed Israel’s Military Radio. “We’re starting to broaden the bottom manoeuvre to different components of the Strip, with one objective: to topple the Hamas terrorist group.”

The navy launched footage of troops patrolling in tanks and on foot, in fields and in badly broken city areas, and firing from weapons, with out specifying the situation in Gaza.

Israel says its evacuation orders are geared toward defending civilians from hurt, and referred to as on worldwide organisations to assist encourage Gazans to maneuver to the areas labelled secure on Israeli maps.

The United Nations mentioned the areas within the south that Israel has ordered evacuated within the three days because the truce had housed greater than 350,000 individuals earlier than the struggle – not counting the a whole lot of 1000’s now sheltering there from different areas.

In Khan Younis, a lot of these withdrawing on Monday have been already displaced from different areas. Abu Mohammed instructed Reuters it was now the third time he had been compelled to flee since abandoning his dwelling in Gaza Metropolis within the north.

“Why did they eject us from our properties in Gaza (Metropolis) in the event that they deliberate to kill us right here?” he mentioned.

At a house in Khan Younis that was struck in a single day, flames licked the collapsed masonry and gray smoke billowed out from the rubble. A toddler’s stuffed toy of a sheep lay in a pile of mud. Boys have been selecting by means of the wreckage. Subsequent door, Nesrine Abdelmoty stood amid broken furnishings within the rented room the place she lives together with her divorced daughter and two-year-old child.

“We have been sleeping at 5 a.m. once we felt issues collapse, all the pieces went the wrong way up,” she instructed Reuters. “They instructed (individuals) to maneuver from the north to Khan Younis, because the south is safer. And now, they’ve bombed Khan Younis. Even Khan Younis shouldn’t be secure now, and even when we transfer to Rafah, Rafah shouldn’t be secure as effectively. The place do they need us to go?”

Israel’s closest ally america has publicly referred to as on it to do extra to safeguard civilians within the southern a part of Gaza than in final month’s marketing campaign within the north, particularly as there are such a lot of individuals already homeless there.

Israel permitted further humanitarian provides to enter the enclave through the truce, however the United Nations says this was paltry in comparison with the territory’s huge humanitarian want, and has now been interrupted by the renewed preventing.

Through the truce, Hamas launched 105 of its hostages in return for 240 Palestinian detainees. However with most girls, and kids hostages now believed free, the truce collapsed over phrases for releasing extra, together with Israeli males and troopers. Israel says 136 hostages are nonetheless being held.