CNN
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Dozens of Palestinians have been killed and thousands forced to flee after Israel launched new attacks. Ground Attack Against Hamas targets in the south Ghazan Khan Yunis city.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Monday it was scaling back the size of a so-called “humanitarian zone” and ordering Palestinians to evacuate the eastern neighborhood of Khan Yunis, based on intelligence that Hamas had infiltrated the area.
CNN witnessed exhausted and angry Palestinians fleeing Khan Yunis, once the Gaza Strip’s second-largest city, expressing anger not only toward Israel but also toward Hamas and other Arab countries as they left.
The Israeli ground incursion into Khan Yunis follows similar operations in Shujaya in northern Gaza and parts of central Gaza, where military forces have re-entered the area to prevent Hamas from regaining power.
The death toll from the operation continued to rise on Tuesday, with Hamas-run government media saying 89 people had been killed, 263 wounded and some 200 buildings bombed.
Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
Israeli forces again attacked parts of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza on Monday, forcing large numbers of Palestinians to flee following an order by the Israeli army to evacuate.
Dr. Mohammed Saqer, spokesman for the Nasser Medical Facility in Khan Yunis, told CNN on Tuesday that the hospital had issued death certificates for 75 Palestinians killed since Monday morning, many of them women and children. Saqer said the hospital was treating more than 200 injured, dozens of whom were in serious or critical condition, and that he expected the death toll to rise.
The Israel Defense Forces said on Tuesday that its “aircraft struck more than 50 terrorist infrastructure facilities, including weapons storage facilities, observation posts and structures used by Hamas terrorists, as well as underground tunnel routes in the area.”
The report also said the Israeli military killed “dozens of terrorists in targeted airstrikes and hand-to-hand combat” in southern Rafah. CNN cannot independently verify the IDF’s claims.
Israel launched a military offensive on October 7 after Hamas attacked southern Israel, leaving at least 1,200 people dead and more than 250 abducted, according to Israeli officials.
According to the Ministry of Health, 39,090 Palestinians have been killed and 90,147 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza. CNN cannot independently verify the figures from Gaza authorities.
Criticism of Israel, Hamas and the Arab world
A CNN correspondent in Khan Yunis on Monday filmed thousands of people, many on foot or in donkey carts, most of them women and children, carrying mattresses and belongings.
One of the women carrying the boxes yelled into the camera: “Take this so everyone knows what’s happening to us.”
The girl is seen walking through the devastated streets with her mother and siblings, crying and holding a bottle of water.
At one point, heavy gunfire was heard nearby, causing women and children to scream in panic. Children could be seen running barefoot, clutching blankets and belongings.
“The Israeli army called us in the morning and told us to evacuate the residents of Abasan, Huzaa, Al-Zaneh, Al-Qarara and Bani Sehayla. It happened suddenly. They told us to go to safe zones, but there are no safe zones in the entire Gaza Strip. They are making a fool of us,” a man named Mohammed Abdul Jawad told CNN.
“We left our tents and everything in them. Where do we go now? It’s so hot, we have no money or anything and no one cares about us,” Jawad said. The Israeli tanks were about 500 meters (1,600 feet) away.
Hatem Khaled/Reuters
Palestinians carry children injured in an Israeli attack at Nasser Hospital on July 22. Displaced people in Khan Yunis expressed anger at Israel, Hamas and other Arab leaders over the war.
Several expressed anger that Arab countries have not done more to help. Um Hazem Samoun, walking with her children, asked: “Where is the Arab world, where are the Arab leaders? Let them come and see our children. We don’t know where we are going, where we are walking to. We didn’t want to leave, but when the warplanes and tanks started bombing, I was scared for my four children… We are walking but we don’t know where to go.”
Some of the evacuees have criticized Hamas, with one woman telling CNN: “Every day there are new evacuation orders. No food, no drink, no safety. We are just fleeing from one place to another. Maybe we just run away from this life and never come back. Maybe that would please Hamas. It was Hamas that forced us to leave, not Israel.”
The visibly angry man spoke to Hamas leadership, including the group’s military chief, Yahya Sinwar, who is believed to be hiding out in Gaza’s vast network of tunnels.
“Sinwar and (Hamas political leader Ismail) Haniyeh, do you understand our suffering? For how long? What do you want from us? What have you brought us?” he asked.
“We are exhausted. We have had enough. You (Hamas) have gone underground and are trying to destroy our people here,” her mother, Riham al-Agha, told CNN as she held her daughter’s hand.
“For how long will we have to keep fleeing from one area to another,” Al Agha asked. “We have been displaced 10 times since October 7. We want a solution. We are losing our children. Enough is enough.”
But much of the anger on the streets was directed at Israel.
A man who gave his name as Abu Suleiman told CNN: “The Israeli army drove us out like this, naked, without any weapons. Let’s throw away the tanks and make a stand. We are men and we will die as men, not Hamas or Fatah.”
He accused the Israeli army of having “no mercy or humanity. They are fighting civilians, women and children.”
Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
Smoke hangs over the Khan Yunis neighborhood after Israeli military bombardment of the area earlier this week.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said in a series of posts on X on Monday: “New evacuation orders issued today in Khan Yunis mean more suffering and displacement. Families have had to pack up their remaining belongings and flee amid bombardment and with no safe shelter. People in Gaza are exhausted, living in inhuman conditions and with no security whatsoever.”
The IDF on Monday dropped leaflets, sent text messages and posted messages on X, warning civilians in four southern Gaza municipalities to leave immediately. The area covered by the warning included part of the so-called humanitarian area of al-Mawasi, which was then narrowed down.
The IDF garrison warned civilians in Khan Yunis that “strong action will be taken against the terrorist groups. For your safety, you must immediately evacuate to a new humanitarian area in the west. The area you are in is considered a dangerous combat zone.”
Meanwhile, the Gaza Civil Defense said that part of the humanitarian area had been evacuated, reducing its size from 45 square kilometers to 28 square kilometers (17 square miles to 11 square miles). Together with the “safe zone” in central Gaza, it said 1.7 million people were now crammed into an area just under 50 square kilometers.
The Civil Defense also claimed that rescue teams in Khan Yunis were targeted while rescuing civilians.
