GAZA: Israel ordered people out of swathes of the main southern city in the Gaza Strip on Monday as it pressed its ground campaign deep into the south, sending desperate residents fleeing even as it dropped bombs on areas where it told them to go.
Israel’s military posted a map on X on Monday morning with around a quarter of the city of Khan Younis marked off in yellow as territory that must be evacuated at once. Three arrows pointed south and west, telling people to head towards the Mediterranean coast and towards Rafah, near the Egypt border.
The Israeli military’s chief Arabic-language spokesperson later said in a post on X that the central road out of Khan Younis to the north “constitutes a battlefield” and was now shut. Access would be permitted on the western outskirts of the city, while in Rafah, a short “tactical suspension of military activities” would allow access until the early afternoon.
At the same time, the official Palestinian news agency (WAFA) said at least 50 people were killed in an Israeli air strike that hit two schools sheltering displaced people in Daraj neighbourhood on Monday. A spokesperson for the Israeli army said it was looking into the report.
As many as 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes in an Israeli bombing campaign that has reduced much of the crowded coastal strip to a desolate wasteland. Medical officials in the enclave say bombing has killed more than 15,500 people, with thousands more missing and feared buried in rubble.
“The goals in the northern section have almost been met,” the commander of Israel’s armoured corps, Brigadier-General Hisham Ibrahim, told Israel’s Army Radio.
Meanwhile, Turkey warned Israel of “serious consequences” if it tries to hunt down Hamas members living outside Palestinian territories, including in Turkey, a Turkish intelligence official said on Monday.
Israel’s public broadcaster Kan reported on Sunday that Israel would hunt down Hamas in Lebanon, Turkey and Qatar even if it takes years, the head of Israel’s domestic security agency Shin Bet said in a recording.