Gaza residents flee Khan Younis en masse ahead of new Israeli operation

"Where can we go?," "Enough!," "Exhausted": Hundreds of residents fled Khan Younis after an evacuation order from the Israeli army, desperately seeking shelter to escape a new military operation in this area of ​​the southern Gaza Strip.

"They threw leaflets at us, ordering us to evacuate," Reem Abu Hayya told AFP, referring to leaflets dropped by plane on Thursday by the Israeli army to order the evacuation of certain areas ahead of military operations in the southern Gaza Strip governorate. The leaflets asked residents to evacuate towns in eastern Khan Younis governorate, including Al-Salqa, Al-Qarara, Bani Suheila, and neighborhoods in the city of the same name. "Hamas and terrorist organizations continue to launch rockets from your areas," the leaflets said, warning that the Israeli army "will act forcefully against these elements."

All of these areas have already been the subject of evacuations and military operations since the start of the war launched on Oct. 7 by Israel in retaliation for the unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israeli soil, which left 1,197 dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data. The military offensive has left nearly 40,000 dead in the Palestinian territory, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Gaza government which does not detail the number of civilians and fighters killed. On Friday, the army announced the launch of a new operation in Khan Younis, following "intelligence reporting the presence of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure" in this area.

The army has often returned to areas where it had carried out major operations against Palestinian fighters, to track them down or act on intelligence regarding the location of hostages.

'Let them take pity on us!'

"We don't know where we are going, and we have sick and disabled people with us. Where can we go?" Abu Hayya told AFP, crying in despair outside a destroyed building. In a besieged territory that has been under constant bombardment for the past 10 months and where supplies are difficult to get in, residents took whatever they could with them as they evacuated on Thursday. AFP journalists saw a young man carrying wooden planks that could be used as shelters or fuel in the near future.

With fuel scarce, only the wealthy traveled by car, often with mattresses piled on the roof. The vast majority walked, carrying their belongings in plastic bags and rubbish bags, on donkey carts, bicycles, pushchairs or wheelchairs. "Enough! Let them both look at the people of Gaza, let them have pity on us for the love of God," Ahmed Al-Najjar told AFP, referring to both Israel and Hamas, angry at the war and the prospect of further displacement.

Mohammad Al-Farra, from Sheikh Nasser, in eastern Khan Younis, is also fed up with the many trips with his family. "We were the first to return home ... as soon as the military operation in our region ended, to escape the heat, the displacement and the difficulties," the 46-year-old told AFP.

"Then the occupation came back to chase us away again, making us suffer tragedy several times," he said, adding, "We are exhausted, the war must end immediately so that we can feel human again, even just a little."

This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.