Hundreds flee southern Gaza Strip amid Israeli strikes

Eight Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded on Tuesday (2) after Israeli forces shelled several areas of Khan Younis and Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, health officials said, as thousands of people fled their homes under fire.

The Israeli army ordered residents of several towns and villages east of Khan Younis to leave their homes on Monday (1), before tanks re-entered the area the military had left several weeks ago.

Thousands of people who did not heed the call were forced to flee their homes in the dark overnight as Israeli tanks and planes bombarded Karara, Abassan and other areas mentioned in the evacuation orders, residents and Hamas media said.

“Where are we going?” said Tamer, a 55-year-old businessman who has been displaced six times since Oct. 7.

“Every time people return to their homes and start rebuilding their lives, even on the rubble of their homes, the occupation sends the tanks back to destroy what is left,” he told Reuters via chat app.

The Israeli military said its forces struck areas in Khan Younis from where about 20 rockets were fired on Monday. The targets included weapons storage facilities and operational centers, it added.

The military said measures were taken before the strikes to ensure that civilians were unharmed and allowed to leave the area, citing evacuation orders. It accused Hamas of using civilian infrastructure and the general population as human shields. The Islamist group denies this.

Islamic Jihad, a Hamas-allied group, took credit for firing the rockets, which it said was a response to “the crimes of the Zionist enemy against our Palestinian people.”

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led fighters invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, including civilians and soldiers, back to Gaza, according to Israeli records.

The retaliatory offensive launched by Israel killed nearly 38,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and left the heavily urbanized coastal enclave in ruins.

Gaza’s health ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants, but officials say most of the dead are civilians. Israel says 317 of its soldiers have been killed in Gaza and that at least a third of the Palestinians killed are combatants.

Rafah

Among the areas subject to evacuation orders was the European Hospital in Gaza, which serves Khan Younis and Rafah, and medical authorities had to evacuate patients and families who had taken shelter in the facility, witnesses and doctors said.

Some residents headed west to the Mawasi beachfront area, which is designated as a humanitarian area but is overrun with displaced families. Some slept on the streets because they could not find shelter.

Israel signaled that its operation in Rafah, in southern Gaza near the border with Egypt, which was intended to crack down on Hamas in its final stronghold, would soon be concluded.

After the intense phase of the war ends, its forces are expected to focus on smaller-scale operations aimed at preventing Hamas from regrouping, officials say.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was moving closer to its goal of destroying the military capabilities of Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007. Less intense operations would continue, he said.

“We are moving towards the end of the phase of eliminating the Hamas terrorist army and will continue to attack its remnants,” Netanyahu said.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad continue to carry out attacks against Israeli forces operating inside Gaza and fire rockets from time to time into Israel in a show of defiance. Hamas says Netanyahu has failed to achieve the goals of the war and that the group is ready to fight for years.

Efforts by U.S.-backed Arab mediators to secure a ceasefire have stalled. Hamas says any deal must end the war and trigger a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Israel says it will accept only temporary pauses in the fighting until Hamas is eradicated.