Thousands of people have fled the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis after the Israeli military warned of a new operation to flush out Hamas militants it says have regrouped there. In al-Jala, a neighbourhood previously designated a humanitarian zone by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), residents packed their belongings on Sunday, uncertain where to seek refuge. Israel stated that rockets had been fired from the area.
“We don’t know where to go,” Amal Abu Yahia, a 42-year-old mother of three, told the Associated Press. She attempted to take her children to al-Mawasi, a crowded tent camp by the coast, but found no space. Her husband was killed in an Israeli airstrike in March, and she had returned to Khan Younis in June to shelter in her severely damaged home. “This is my fourth displacement,” she said.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, reported on X that more than 75,000 people have been displaced in southwest Gaza in recent days. “Some are only able to carry their children with them, some carry their whole lives in one small bag. They are going to overcrowded places where shelters are already overflowing,” he wrote. The IDF has carried out strikes even in designated evacuation zones like al-Mawasi.
The renewed offensive comes as ceasefire negotiations are expected to restart in Cairo or Doha later this week, following calls from the US, Egypt and Qatar. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a delegation would be sent to talks beginning on 15 August, although he has faced accusations of stalling. Hamas has yet to respond to the invitation. The push for a deal is seen as urgent after the recent assassinations of a top Hezbollah commander and Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, which threaten to widen the conflict.
