Israel has issued fresh warnings to the residents of Khan Younis in southern Gaza to evacuate and move west, closer to humanitarian aid and out of the line of fire, in the latest indication of the country’s expansion of operation against Hamas in the south.
“We’re asking people to relocate. I know it’s not easy for many of them, but we don’t want to see civilians caught up in the crossfire,” Mark Regev, an aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told MSNBC.
The recent calls for evacuation could mean that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who first left northern Gaza to move south might have to relocate again, along with the citizens of Khan Younis.
Khan Younis has a population of more than 400,000.
Since then, Israel has bombed much of Gaza City to rubble, ordered the depopulation of the entire northern half of the enclave and left homeless around two-thirds of the strip’s 2.3 million Palestinians.
Many of those who have fled fear their displacement could become permanent.
Earlier this week, Israeli forces reportedly started dropping leaflets warning Palestinians living in parts of southern Palestine to leave.
The leaflets, written in Arabic, that were found in the town of Khan Younis advised residents to evacuate the area, saying anyone who refuses to leave “is putting his life in danger.”
“For your safety, you need to evacuate your places of residence immediately and head to known shelters,” the leaflets said, naming the neighbourhoods of Khuzaa, Abassan, Bani Suhaila and Al Qarara.
“Anyone near terrorists or their facilities puts their life at risk, and every house used by terrorists will be targeted,” the leaflets said.
With inputs from agencies
Via Firstpost World Latest News https://ift.tt/ySusZIX
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