In addition to the thousands of killings and man-made starvation in Gaza, "Israel" has lately implemented a policy of launching artillery and airstrikes shortly after orderingthe evacuation of areas it had previously designated as "safe" humanitarian zones. This practice is not an isolated event; multiple evacuation orders have been issued over the past nine months.
This week, as Munadil Abu Younes was reading the news on his phone, he was startled by yet another evacuation order from Israeli occupation forces.
IOF ordered thousands to "evacuate", including from the area where he was taking refuge. His eighth displacement was unlike any he had experienced before.
“Israeli forces told us about the evacuation order as they entered the area,” he told The Guardian. “We barely had time to collect our things, most people fled without taking anything. During previous evacuation orders they gave us a day or two, but this time we didn’t even have half an hour.”
The IOF issued a forcible order that included much of western Khan Younis and part of al-Mawasi, a region previously labeled as a “humanitarian zone”.
Gaza’s second-largest city was already reduced to rubble and debris due to relentless Israeli bombardment. In Khan Younis, hundreds of thousands of residents were once again forcibly displaced without a clear destination, as the evacuation order impacted approximately 400,000 people.
Some people learned of the evacuation order through voice messages on their phones. Muhanna Qudeih, 43, from the Khuzaa neighborhood in eastern Khan Younis, was at the local market buying vegetables when he started hearing people around him shouting about the order.
“I started asking those around me, and they said there were recorded messages on mobile phones ordering everyone to evacuate the area,” he told The Guardian.
He grabbed some essentials and ran to his sister’s house to tell his family. His wife, Qudeih, and their three children have lived with his sister since their house was bombed during the first Israeli ground invasion of Khan Younis. This would be their fifth displacement.
In Bani Suhaila, east of Khan Younis, Younes and his wife, along with their six children, hurriedly gathered their most essential belongings and packed them into their car.
“The bombing was initially light, but an hour after the evacuation order it intensified,” he said, as quoted by the Guardian.
“Then, shells came at us from all directions. I wanted to move quickly, but suddenly the street was full of people.” The family drove east toward Salah al-Din Road, only to encounter Israeli tanks advancing in their direction.
“We found people running, racing to escape like judgment day had come,” he said. “Bullets were falling around us like rain, and many people got hit ... We prayed to be able to flee this disaster safely.”
As Qudeih and his family fled their home near the center of Khan Younis, he reported encountering "a shower of bombardment" along with tank and helicopter fire. He also noted that several drones hovered above them, "watching everything and shooting."
People scattered in all directions in search of safety. Many, including Qudeih and his family, fled toward the Al-Nasser hospital in the city, as hundreds of wounded people also poured in, overwhelming the already struggling facility due to the Israeli systematic dismantling of the healthcare system in Gaza.
Gaza health officials said that by the evening, the renewed Israeli bombing campaignhad killed more than 70 people and wounded at least 200 more. Medics pleaded for blood donations and supplies to try to treat the injured, many of whom were laid out on the floor or between beds for lack of space.
Some of those gathered outside the hospital had fled there on foot, leaving their belongings behind in the rush to escape. “As we ran away from the bombings, I saw dead and wounded people laying on the ground,” said a woman who gave her name only as Amal.
“There was no way anyone could save them or even retrieve the bodies, because the bombing was so bad … aircraft of all kinds were hovering low to the ground the entire time.”
Israeli tanks drove deep into Bani Suhaila on the edge of Khan Younis, while IOF soldiers positioned themselves on rooftops. Others reportedly ransacked the town’s cemetery.
For the thousands who escaped the Israeli bombs and artillery fire, their latest displacement brought new challenges. With nowhere to run to, many like Amal spent the week sleeping in the open, unable to find a place in the shattered homes that remained in southern Gaza. Health officials said 30 more people had been killed and almost 150 injured by Thursday evening.
“We couldn’t find anywhere to settle as there were so many displaced people. Initially, we sat on the rubble of a bombed-out mosque. Along with many of the displaced we’re just out in the open now. We’re somewhere with no water, we have to walk far to buy it, food is very scarce and the situation is very difficult,” Amal told The Guardian.
“We’ve been displaced over and over again, but this time was different and we were stripped of our possessions. These have been the hardest days we have experienced in this brutal war.”
Younes mentioned that he eventually found refuge in a southwestern part of Khan Younis, but within days, that area also received an evacuation order.
“We became twice our age during these 10 months,” he anxiously stated.