Israel orders new evacuation in Gaza as aid workers say bombing kills dozens

The Israeli military ordered residents to evacuate part of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday and bombarded the area, killing scores of people and wounding hundreds, local health officials reported, adding to the misery of a city already deeply scarred by 9 1/2 months of war.

The military said it was moving farther into Khan Younis because Hamas was trying to regroup there and had used part of what was designated a humanitarian zone to fire rockets toward Israel. The military also noted that it had warned civilians earlier Monday, before it began its operations, to leave the “specific areas of Khan Younis,” shrinking the zone it had identified for people displaced from their homes by the war.

The Gaza Health Ministry said 70 bodies were brought to Nasser Hospital, and at least 200 other people had been wounded, figures that could not be confirmed independently, adding that others were almost certainly buried under rubble. Palestine Red Crescent said its teams in the area had dealt with at least 12 people who had been killed and 50 wounded.

Mohammed Saqer, director-general of nursing at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, said hundreds of injured men, women, children and older people had been brought to the hospital, which lacked mattresses, blankets, syringes and other essentials.

“The situation is appalling,” Saqer said in an interview, adding that some injuries had necessitated amputations while other people had sustained serious burns.

The Israeli military said it had ordered the evacuation of eastern Khan Younis because it was “about to forcefully operate against” Hamas in the area. The military said it had struck more than 30 sites there, “including in the area from which a projectile was launched toward Nirim in southern Israel” on Monday.

Residents in eastern Khan Younis were told to seek temporary shelter closer to the Mediterranean coast, in an area that Israel has designated as a humanitarian zone, but that aid workers and displaced Palestinians say does not have basic supplies, including enough clean water, for the legions who have fled there.

The military had previously ordered an evacuation of the city but not everyone left, aid workers and residents said, and the military said Monday that “remaining residents” of the city’s eastern neighborhoods should go to the “adjusted Humanitarian Area” in Muwasi.

“The calls for the temporary evacuation are being communicated to residents through SMS messages, phone calls and media broadcasts in Arabic,” the Israeli forces said.

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