Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians from Gaza City and residents of the outskirts of Khan Yunis continued on Tuesday to head towards the south of the Gaza Strip, after the Israeli army warned them of an attack on the areas where they are located, while the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoliatric, said that what is happening in Gaza represents a clear moral failure facing the international community. .
The city of Khan Yunis is currently besieged from the eastern and northwestern sides, and violent clashes are taking place between the Palestinian resistance and the Israeli occupation forces on the Deir al-Balah Salah al-Din axis, near the Khan Yunis mills, and in the towns of Bani Suhaila and al-Qarara, according to Agence France-Presse.
About 35 to 40 thousand displaced people who fled the areas east of Khan Yunis left schools and hospitals and headed towards Rafah, the last area in the Gaza Strip on the Egyptian border, where Israeli tanks are about 1,500 meters away from the city of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, according to the agency’s correspondent.
The displaced people set up tents in the streets of the Al-Mawasi neighborhood, west of the city of Khan Yunis, in the rain, and the sound of Israeli marches could be heard above them.
Women spread out on the sandy ground, and young men brought piles of tree branches to use as fuel for cooking.
Donkey carts and cars were seen heading towards the city of Rafah, and a large truck with a locomotive was transporting displaced children and women from Jabalia to the city of Rafah.
Abdo al-Najjar, from Khan Yunis, told Agence France-Presse while leaving for Rafah, “We are in an area with ordinary residents in the center of Khan Yunis. It was all destroyed by the bombing.”
The Israeli army distributed leaflets in which it was written, “To the residents of the Al-Satra neighborhood, Hamad Al-Katiba, the station, Ma’an and Bani Suhaila. In the coming hours, the Israeli army will begin a severe attack on your residence area with the aim of destroying the Hamas terrorist organization.”
He added, “Do not move yet. Stay in the shelter or hospitals you are inside. It is very dangerous for you to go out. I excuse those who warn me.”
Rafah is already overcrowded and conditions are miserable
Most of the 2.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip have been left homeless due to the Israeli aggression on Gaza, and the new wave of displacement after the end of the week-long truce on December 1 exacerbates the already catastrophic humanitarian situation.
In Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, where Israel launched a long-expected attack, Palestinians who had sought protection from air strikes by setting up tents on the grounds of the city’s Nasser Hospital were dismantling their tents and loading piles of mats and blankets onto cars or donkey carts.
Khan Yunis was home to 381,000 people before the war. A United Nations spokesman said that another 245,000 people were displaced due to the Israeli bombing on the northern part of Gaza and took refuge in Khan Yunis in 71 different locations.
The Israeli army called on residents to evacuate 3 specific areas in Rafah Governorate. These areas are already crowded with about 280,000 residents and 470,000 displaced people who arrived after the war began on October 7.
The UN spokesman said: “The transfer order will effectively raise the number of people in Rafah to 1.35 million people, by pushing an additional 600,000 people from Khan Yunis to an area with a current population of 750,000 people, where the ability of the United Nations and its partners to provide assistance faces serious challenges.” actually”.
till when?
Eyewitnesses told Agence France-Presse that “Israeli tanks arrived in the town of Bani Suhaila from the eastern Qarara area and were stationed east and center of the city of Khan Yunis, hundreds of meters away from the station area in the center of Khan Yunis on the western side.”
The bombing killed 24 people in a school housing displaced people in Khan Yunis, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
Hussam Al-Walidi (26 years old) said, “We are tired of moving from one place to another… My family and I are going to Tal Al-Sultan in Rafah on foot, and the owner of the vehicle does not accept 300 shekels (about 80 dollars) to transport us.”
Moral failure
Thousands of displaced people in Gaza from the neighborhoods of Al-Shuja’iyya, Al-Zaytoun, and the Old City left their homes and headed to Al-Shifa Hospital and government schools in the Al-Rimal area, west of Gaza.
A statement by the Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip warned against “all attempts at displacement, which will fail, and against any Arab and Western agreement with plans to liquidate the issue in any way.”
The factions’ statement said, “We confirm that the administration of Gaza is an internal matter in which we will not accept interference.”
The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spolijaric, said after a visit to the European Hospital in Khan Yunis – according to Reuters – “We cannot turn our backs on what is considered a clear moral failure facing the international community.”
She called on “the parties and everyone with influence to calm down and find non-military solutions to the enormous suffering of people on both sides.”
She stressed that the International Committee of the Red Cross would do “everything in its power to help alleviate the suffering,” adding, “But we cannot do this alone. There is not only a humanitarian solution, but there must be a political solution.”
