Israel orders evacuation of area in Gaza designated as humanitarian zone

Destroyed buildings stand in the Gaza Strip, seen from southern Israel, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Israeli military on Saturday ordered the evacuation of a crowded part of Gaza designated as a humanitarian zone, saying it was planning an operation against Hamas militants in Khan Younis, including parts of Muwasi, a makeshift tent camp where thousands of people are seeking refuge.

The order comes in response to rocket fire that Israel says came from the area. It is the second evacuation in a week in an area designated for Palestinians fleeing other parts of Gaza. Many Palestinians have been uprooted multiple times in search of safety during Israel’s punishing air and ground campaign.

On Monday, after the evacuation order was issued, several Israeli airstrikes were carried out around Khan Younis, killing at least 70 people, the Gaza Health Ministry said, citing figures from Nasser Hospital.

The area is part of a 60-square-kilometer (about 20 square miles) “humanitarian zone” where Israel sent Palestinians during the war. Much of the area is covered with tent camps that lack sanitation and medical facilities and have limited access to aid, the United Nations and humanitarian agencies say. Israel estimates that about 1.8 million Palestinians are sheltering there, more than half of Gaza’s pre-war population of 2.3 million.

Further north, airstrikes killed at least five people in Zawaida in central Gaza, according to AP journalists who saw the bodies at the hospital. The toll, confirmed by Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al Balah, included a father, mother and three children.

The war in Gaza has left more than 39,100 Palestinians dead, according to the territory’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The UN estimated in February that about 17,000 children in the territory are now unaccompanied, and the number has likely risen since then.

The war began with a Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking about 250 hostages. About 115 people remain in Gaza, about a third of them dead, Israeli authorities said.

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