[News] What is the situation in Gaza’s Khan Younis as Israel intensifies attacks?

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 What is the situation in Gaza’s Khan Younis as Israel intensifies attacks?

*Israel has intensified attacks on Khan Younis, which it dubbed a ‘safe
zone’ in the initial days of the war.*
[image: A Palestinian man inspects the damage at the site of Israeli
strikes on houses, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.]
Israeli attacks have caused immense damage and destruction to residential
buildings in Khan Younis [Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters]
Published On 12 Dec 2023
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/12/what-is-the-situation-in-gazas-khan-younis-as-israel-intensifies-attacks
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Since the one-week truce in Gaza ended on December 1, Israel has expanded
its offensive to the besieged enclave’s south, where more than a million
Palestinians sought shelter following Israeli bombardment in the north.

Israel has intensified attacks on Khan Younis declaring it a “dangerous
combat zone
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/6/how-israel-is-squeezing-1-8-million-palestinians-into-an-airport-sized-area>”.
Gaza’s second-largest city, which was dubbed a safe zone in the initial
days of the war, is now a scene of devastation and suffering. Fear of
Israeli strikes haunts people while lack of food and other basic amenities
have driven people to misery amid bloody street fighting.

Meanwhile, Israel continues to attack northern Gaza, raiding the Kamal
Adwan Hospital on Tuesday.

Here is what is happening in Khan Younis and the rest of southern Gaza.
What is happening in Khan Younis?

Two people were killed in Khan Younis in Israeli artillery shelling
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/12/12/israel-hamas-war-live-palestinians-going-hungry-as-israel-pounds-gaza>
on Tuesday.

A bicycle was reportedly hit on Sunday in the centre of Khan Younis,
killing two Palestinian children who were riding it, according to the UN
humanitarian agency OCHA.

The city has been hit by air strikes and fire belts, causing casualties and
injuries. Injured Palestinians were largely taken to the Nasser and
European hospitals in the city, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant pushed back against international
calls on Monday to wrap up the country’s military offensive in the Gaza
Strip, saying the current phase of the operation against the Hamas group
will “take time”.

[image: INTERACTIVE - Damage across Gaza December 4-1702386022]
How many people fled to Khan Younis?

Over one million Palestinians have been displaced from northern Gaza since
October 13, when the Israeli military ordered people to evacuate to the
south on a 24-hour notice.

More than 215,000 displaced Palestinians took shelter in dozens of UNRWA
shelters in Khan Younis.

However, on December 3, Israel ordered an immediate evacuation
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/4/israel-asks-palestinians-to-evacuate-but-is-any-place-safe-in-gaza>
of about 20 percent of the city, which was home to more than 400,000 people
before the war erupted on October 7. The area marked for evacuation
included 21 shelters and 50,000 internally displaced people, mostly from
the north of Gaza, according to OCHA.

Several of those who were displaced to Khan Younis had to further move to
Rafah city near the Egyptian border, some even moving for the fourth time
since the outbreak of violence.

Now, thousands of displaced people from Khan Younis itself, as well as the
north of Gaza are squeezed in the dangerously overcrowded al-Fukhari
<https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/12/11/gazas-al-fukhari-is-dangerously-overcrowded-as-israel-pushes-people-south?traffic_source=rss>,
south of Khan Younis. Hospitals and schools in the area are filled beyond
capacity, as the Israeli army continues to order Palestinians to move
further south.

Shrinking space and the rising danger of health issues and infections due
to the lack of water have been an increasing cause for concern.[image:
INTERACTIVE - Israel Gaza War Map - Israel bombards Khan Younis and Rafah]
Attacks on southern Gaza

Thousands of Palestinians have been forced to flee further to the south
towards the city of Rafah. Twenty Palestinians, including seven children
and at least five women, were killed in Israeli attacks on Rafah
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/12/israeli-forces-launch-deadly-west-bank-raids-continue-pounding-gaza>
on Tuesday. There are reports of more air attacks.

Martin Griffiths, the UN humanitarian affairs coordinator, says his
organisation was hopeful and has been informed that once the war moved to
southern Gaza, there would be a different, more precise approach to the
fighting.

“[But] what’s happened is the assault on southern Gaza has been no less
than the north. It’s raging through Khan Younis at the moment, and it is
threatening Rafah. The compression of the population is greater. We cannot
be sure of any of our points of operation to be safe,” he told Al Jazeera.

Central Gaza has not been spared either as an Israeli air strike overnight
flattened a residential building where some 80 people were staying in the
Maghazi refugee camp, killing at least 22 on Monday.

Israeli air strikes and the brutal ground invasion have killed at least
18,205 Palestinians and wounded 49,645 others. More than 80 percent of the
casualty figures are civilians.[image:
Interactive_Gaza_Food_Inadequacy_Dec7_revised]
Do southern Gaza residents have access to food?

UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food Michael Fakhri says “every
single Palestinian in Gaza is going hungry” and warns world is witnessing a
“genocide”.

UN officials and rights groups have been urging Israel to speed up the
deployment of humanitarian aid to Gaza by opening the southern Karem Abu
Salem (Karem Shalom) border with Israel.

Israel announced that it would conduct security screenings of the aid at
Karem Abu Salem beginning on Tuesday. The first batch of humanitarian
trucks were inspected and on their way to the Rafah border.

Palestinians who are staying in the north are going hungry as hardly any
aid delivery has made its way to the area devastated by Israel’s relentless
bombardments.
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