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

GAZA:

Israel ordered Palestinians to go away elements of the primary southern metropolis within the Gaza Strip on Monday at the same time as its bombs rained down on areas the place it had informed them to go.

Israeli troops and tanks additionally pressed the bottom marketing campaign in opposition to Hamas fighters within the south of the enclave after having largely gained management of the now-devastated north.

Israel’s navy posted a map on social media platform X on Monday morning with round 1 / 4 of the town of Khan Younis marked off in yellow as territory that have to be evacuated directly.

Three arrows pointed south and west, telling folks to move in direction of the Mediterranean coast and in direction of Rafah, close to the Egyptian border.

Determined Gazans in Khan Younis packed their belongings and headed in direction of Rafah. Most have been on foot, strolling previous ruined buildings in a solemn and silent procession.

However Rafah itself was coming below Israeli fireplace. The top of the United Nations company in Gaza (UNWRA), Thomas White, stated folks there have been themselves being pressured to flee.

“Individuals are pleading for recommendation on the place to search out security. We’ve nothing to inform them,” he stated on X.

Bombing at one web site in Rafah in a single day had torn a crater the dimensions of a basketball courtroom out of the earth. A useless toddler’s naked toes and black trousers poked out from below a pile of rubble. Males struggled with their naked palms to maneuver a bit of the concrete that had crushed the kid.

Later they chanted “God is best” and wept as they marched by way of the ruins carrying the physique in a bundle, and that of one other small baby physique wrapped in a blanket.

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

“There have been youngsters, girls and martyrs,” he stated. “They let you know it’s a secure space, however there isn’t a secure space in all the Gaza Strip, it’s all lies and manipulations.”

Learn additionally: Israel expands offensive in Gaza

Israel accuses Hamas of 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.

Israel launched its assault to wipe out Hamas, which guidelines Gaza, in retaliation for an Oct.7 cross-border assault by its gunmen. They killed 1,200 folks and seized 240 hostages, in keeping with Israeli tallies.

Gaza’s well being ministry stated on Monday that at the very least 15,899 Palestinians, 70% of them girls or below 18s, have now been killed in Israeli air and artillery strikes on the enclave since Oct. 7. Hundreds extra are lacking and feared buried in rubble.

As many as 80% of Gaza’s 2.three million folks have fled their houses within the Israeli bombing marketing campaign that has decreased a lot of the crowded coastal strip to a desolate wasteland.

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 have pushed into Gaza from the border fence and lower off the primary north-south route, residents say. The Israeli navy stated the central street out of Khan Younis to the north “constitutes a battlefield” and was now shut.

ISRAEL’S GOALS IN NORTH ALMOST MET

Palestinians collect on the web site of an Israeli strike in Rafah, within the southern Gaza Strip, December 4, 2023. PHOTO: REUTERS

The commander of Israel’s armoured corps, Brigadier-Normal Hisham Ibrahim, informed Military Radio the navy had virtually achieved its targets in northern Gaza.

“We’re starting to broaden the bottom manoeuvre to different elements of the Strip, with one objective: to topple the Hamas terrorist group,” he stated.

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 aimed 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 stated the areas within the south that Israel has ordered evacuated within the three days because the truce had housed greater than 350,000 folks earlier than the conflict – not counting the tons of of 1000’s now sheltering there from different areas.

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

Palestinians collect on the web site of an Israeli strike in Rafah, within the southern Gaza Strip, December 4, 2023. PHOTO: REUTERS

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

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 baby’s stuffed toy sheep lay in a pile of mud. Boys have been choosing by way 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. after we felt issues collapse, every thing went the other way up,” she informed Reuters. “They informed (folks) 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 properly. The place do they need us to go?”

Israel’s closest ally the US has 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.

Israel permitted extra humanitarian provides to enter the enclave in the course of the truce, however the United Nations says this was paltry in contrast with the territory’s huge humanitarian wants, and has now been interrupted by the renewed combating.