Israel expands evacuation orders for Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip

The Israeli military Sunday ordered civilians to evacuate from part of the humanitarian zone it had set up in the southwestern Gaza Strip, saying it was planning to fight in the area because Hamas had “embedded terrorist infrastructure” there.

It was the latest in a string of evacuations ordered by the Israeli military in 10 months of war, and it came a day after Israel gave a similar explanation – that Hamas fighters were hiding among civilians – for a strike on a school-turned-shelter that local authorities said killed dozens of people.

In recent days, tens of thousands of people have fled the city of Khan Younis after evacuation orders issued by Israel’s military last week.

The new order Sunday covered the neighborhood of al-Jalaa in Khan Younis.

Israel’s military said it was redrawing the border of the humanitarian zone and urged civilians to move to what it said were safe zones. It said it was sending phone messages, dropping flyers and broadcasting these instructions to people in the area.

But many people in Gaza say there is nowhere in the enclave that is truly safe. Israel has previously mounted attacks inside the designated humanitarian zone, including a strike on the outskirts of Khan Younis last month targeting the commander of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, that Gaza health authorities said killed at least 90 people in the vicinity.

Residents also say that the repeated orders to move are exhausting, humiliating and expensive. Almost all of Gaza’s population of 2.2 million has been displaced by the war, which health authorities in the enclave say has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians. Israel has faced international condemnation for not doing enough to prevent civilian casualties.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the main U.N. agency that aids Palestinians, said Sunday that people in Gaza have “nowhere to go” amid the evacuation orders and that more than 75,000 people had been displaced in the southwestern part of the enclave in recent days.

“Some are only able to carry their children with them, some carry their whole lives in one small bag,” he said in a post on social media. “They are going to overcrowded places where shelters are already overflowing with families.”

Israel has adjusted the borders of the humanitarian zone several times; the area shrank by more than a fifth last month. The latest downsizing appeared to be more limited. Maps and analysis of satellite imagery show that the zone is overcrowded and often hit by strikes.

Hours before announcing the evacuation order Sunday, Israel’s military said that it had carried out a “targeted raid” in Khan Younis, recovering weapons including rifles and explosives in a tunnel. It also said that its jets had struck dozens of targets and killed fighters, including one who took part in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The military’s claims could not be independently verified.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.