Israel orders evacuation of tens of thousands of already displaced Gaza residents
JERUSALEM – The Israeli military has ordered the evacuation of tens of thousands of Palestinians who had been displaced and were sheltering in a United Nations vocational training center in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis.
The order came Thursday as the Israeli military’s ground offensive in Gaza intensified in the south – where more than 1 million people have fled seeking safety – telling those in the center to leave by 5 p.m. Friday, according to Palestinian media.
The training center, which is run by UNRWA, the U.N. agency that aids Palestinians, is the largest such U.N. facility in Khan Younis. More than 40,000 people have been sheltering in or around the center, according to the U.N.
There was no immediate confirmation of the Israeli order by UNRWA. But Thursday night, Philippe Lazzarini, head of the agency, posted on social media: “A sea of people forced to flee Khan Younis, ending up at the border with Egypt. A never ending search for safety that #Gaza is no longer able to give.”
The post was accompanied by video of hundreds of people fleeing on foot.
Israel’s order to evacuate came a day after tank fire struck a building in the same U.N. center, killing at least 13 people and wounding dozens, according to Palestinian officials and media, who blamed the strike on Israel. U.N. officials said the building was hit by two tank rounds. Israel is the only combatant in Gaza with tanks. Israel denied the accusation, saying it had “currently ruled out” that it was responsible for the strike.
The United Nations did not directly blame Israel. But in statements and social media posts about the strike, it said that it shares the location of all its facilities including shelters with Israeli authorities, adding that it had received assurances that people inside the facilities would be safe.
The United Nations said Wednesday’s strike was the third direct hit on that compound.
“The compound is a clearly marked @UN facility & its coordinates were shared with Israeli Authorities as we do for all our facilities,” Lazzarini said in a social media post Wednesday. “Once again a blatant disregard of basic rules of war.”
The order to leave the U.N. center also came as Israel reiterated orders for a number of entire Khan Younis neighborhoods to flee “for their safety” and directed them to go to the overcrowded coastal area of Muwasi, which Israel has unilaterally designated a humanitarian zone.
Gaza residents and U.N. officials have long said that Israel’s war on Gaza has left nowhere safe for the more than 2 million Palestinian residents of the territory to take refuge.
An estimated 1.7 million Gaza residents have fled their homes during the war, according to the United Nations, many of them displaced multiple times.