Thin mattresses piled on a cart, bags stuffed with belongings, exhausted families: the scene is repeating itself for tens of thousands of residents of the south-east of the Gaza Strip, once again called upon to flee the fighting.
The new evacuation order issued by the Israeli army on Monday to the eastern sectors of Khan Younis and Rafah concerns around 250,000 people, said UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Nearly two months ago, a similar order had already led to mass displacement from Rafah, which the Israeli army had presented as the last bastion of the Islamist movement Hamas, which it has been determined to annihilate since the attack of October 7.
“We didn’t know where to go and we don’t have enough money to buy a new tent,” said Ahmed al-Najjar, a 26-year-old resident of Bani Suheila, a town affected by the evacuation order.
Temperatures are around 30 degrees across the Palestinian territory, where access to water, electricity or food is very precarious.
“We had to spend the night on the street and this increased our stress. This morning we decided to return home. There is nowhere to go. What will happen will happen,” adds Ahmed al-Najjar, resigned.
Witnesses reported numerous strikes east and south of Khan Younis.
The Israeli army said it had targeted the area from which some 20 projectiles were fired towards Israeli territory on Monday, notably targeting “terrorist infrastructure”.
– “No space” –
Some 80 percent of the Gaza Strip’s residents, or 1.9 million people, are now displaced, according to the UN humanitarian coordinator for the territory, Sigrid Kaag, who said Tuesday she was “deeply concerned” by the new orders issued by the Israeli army.
Since October 7, the Israeli offensive on Gaza has killed 37,925 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-run Gaza government.
The attack by its commandos on Israeli soil resulted in the death of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
Israel has not indicated whether there will be another major operation in southern Gaza, but its evacuation orders are usually a preamble to intense fighting.
Although casualties continue to arrive, the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis has started transferring patients to another facility as it is located in an evacuation zone.
On a piece of land in al-Mawasi, on the coast west of Khan Younis, hundreds of displaced people wonder what tomorrow will bring.
“There is no room for us or for any displaced person,” laments Bakri Bakri, 39.
– “No rest” –
Abdullah Muhareb says he was already on the road, from one place to another, when Israeli forces targeted Khan Younis in December.
“We have already suffered a lot, we lived for a long time in tents in al-Mawasi,” said the 25-year-old Palestinian.
Then, when the army withdrew, he and his family returned home.
“There was a lot of damage from the bombing, but we fixed the house and managed to rest,” he told AFP.
After the new evacuation orders, “we left again,” he laments.
“We don’t know where to go. We went back to where we were in al-Mawasi but we couldn’t find the place because there are a lot of displaced people,” he said.
“We slept in the street without shelter, without food, without water. There were bombings around us,” adds Mr. Muhareb, who “no longer has the energy” for this “barbaric war that allows no rest.”
