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<h1>What is the situation in Gaza’s Khan Younis as Israel intensifies attacks?</h1><p class="gmail-article__subhead gmail-css-1wt8oh6"><em>Israel has intensified attacks on Khan Younis, which it dubbed a ‘safe zone’ in the initial days of the war.</em></p><div class="gmail-responsive-image"><img src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/2023-12-12T074622Z_1775769124_RC2IV4A4TAYR_RTRMADP_3_ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS-1702382048.jpg?resize=770%2C513&quality=80" alt="A Palestinian man inspects the damage at the site of Israeli strikes on houses, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas." width="425" height="283" style="margin-right: 25px;"></div>Israeli
attacks have caused immense damage and destruction to residential
buildings in Khan Younis [Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters]<div class="gmail-article-info-block gmail-css-ti04u9"><div class="gmail-article-b-l" style="border-color:rgb(250,144,0)"><div class="gmail-article-dates" style="border-color:rgb(250,144,0)"><div class="gmail-date-simple gmail-css-1yjq2zp"><span class="gmail-screen-reader-text">Published On 12 Dec 2023</span><span aria-hidden="true"><br></span></div><div class="gmail-date-simple gmail-css-1yjq2zp"><font size="1"><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/12/what-is-the-situation-in-gazas-khan-younis-as-israel-intensifies-attacks">https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/12/what-is-the-situation-in-gazas-khan-younis-as-israel-intensifies-attacks</a></font></div></div></div><div class="gmail-social-share-buttons"><a class="gmail-social-share-button" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-label="Share on Facebook" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Faje.io%2F4lpvop"></a></div></div><a class="gmail-social-share-button" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-label="Share on Twitter" href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=What%20is%20the%20situation%20in%20Gaza%E2%80%99s%20Khan%20Younis%20as%20Israel%20intensifies%20attacks%3F&source=sharethiscom&related=sharethis&via=AJEnglish&url=https%3A%2F%2Faje.io%2F4lpvop"></a><div class="gmail-article-info-block gmail-css-ti04u9"><div class="gmail-social-share-buttons"></div></div><div class="gmail-wysiwyg gmail-wysiwyg--all-content gmail-css-ibbk12"><p>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.</p>
<p>Israel has intensified attacks on Khan Younis declaring it a “<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/6/how-israel-is-squeezing-1-8-million-palestinians-into-an-airport-sized-area">dangerous combat zone</a>”.
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.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Israel continues to attack northern Gaza, raiding the Kamal Adwan Hospital on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Here is what is happening in Khan Younis and the rest of southern Gaza.</p>
<h2 id="gmail-what-is-happening-in-khan-younis">What is happening in Khan Younis?</h2>
<p>Two people were killed in Khan Younis in <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/12/12/israel-hamas-war-live-palestinians-going-hungry-as-israel-pounds-gaza">Israeli artillery shelling</a> on Tuesday.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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”.</p>
<p><img class="gmail-size-arc-image-770 gmail-wp-image-2551760" src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/INTERACTIVE-Damage-across-Gaza-December-4-1702386022.png?w=770&resize=770%2C770&quality=80" alt="INTERACTIVE - Damage across Gaza December 4-1702386022" width="425" height="425" style="margin-right: 0px;"></p>
<h2 id="gmail-how-many-people-fled-to-khan-younis">How many people fled to Khan Younis?</h2>
<p>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.</p></div><p>More than 215,000 displaced Palestinians took shelter in dozens of UNRWA shelters in Khan Younis.</p>
<p>However, on December 3, Israel <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/4/israel-asks-palestinians-to-evacuate-but-is-any-place-safe-in-gaza">ordered an immediate evacuation</a>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Now, thousands of displaced people from Khan Younis itself, as well
as the north of Gaza are squeezed in the dangerously overcrowded <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/12/11/gazas-al-fukhari-is-dangerously-overcrowded-as-israel-pushes-people-south?traffic_source=rss">al-Fukhari</a>,
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.</p>
<p>Shrinking space and the rising danger of health issues and infections
due to the lack of water have been an increasing cause for concern.<img class="gmail-aligncenter gmail-size-arc-image-770 gmail-wp-image-2533324" src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/INTERACTIVE-Israel-Gaza-War-Map-Israel-bombards-Khan-Younis-and-Rafah-Dec-4-1701693888.png?w=770&resize=770%2C769&quality=80" alt="INTERACTIVE - Israel Gaza War Map - Israel bombards Khan Younis and Rafah" width="425" height="424" style="margin-right: 0px;"></p>
<h2 id="gmail-attacks-on-southern-gaza">Attacks on southern Gaza</h2>
<p>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 <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/12/israeli-forces-launch-deadly-west-bank-raids-continue-pounding-gaza">Israeli attacks on Rafah</a> on Tuesday. There are reports of more air attacks.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“[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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.<img class="gmail-aligncenter gmail-size-arc-image-770 gmail-wp-image-2540898" src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Interactive_Gaza_Food_Inadequacy_Dec7_revised-01-1701955277.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C770&quality=80" alt="Interactive_Gaza_Food_Inadequacy_Dec7_revised" width="425" height="425" style="margin-right: 0px;"></p>
<h2 id="gmail-do-southern-gaza-residents-have-access-to-food">Do southern Gaza residents have access to food?</h2>
<p>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”.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
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