Israel, on Friday, ordered the residents of Khan Younis to evacuate to the city of Rafah after the war resumed following a one-week-long truce.
In a report by ARISE NEWS special correspondent, Karl Bostic, it was gathered that the Israeli army had, on Friday morning, dropped leaflets in the city of Khan Younis asking the residents to evacuate as they believe that senior military members of the Hamas group are hiding in the city.
In his report, Bostic said, “Up until now, Israel had ordered all of those in the northern part and Gaza city to evacuate to the South because they were concentrating on the tunnel network, so that’s why they went to Khan Younis and Rafah. So, now you’ve got 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million population displaced. That’s 1.8 million people. Many of them are largely in Khan Younis right now, a city of formerly thousands that is now about a million.
“And now, the bombing has resumed, but now the bombing is targeting Khan Younis and Rafah, targeting Khan Younis because Israel maintains that that’s where the senior Hamas military leadership is hiding, but now, what Israel has done is they’ve actually dropped leaflets in Arabic, telling people to evacuate to head for the south, to head to Rafah.
“They also have published a map with evacuation zones with dozens, if not hundreds of coded zones and neighbourhoods across Gaza where it’s not safe to live, where it’s not safe to be, that they must leave.
“Now, Rafah and Khan Younis are both being bombed. In fact, one of the bombs landed next to a hospital, so the death toll is now several dozen. So, this doesn’t look good in the sense that we haven’t even seen the second phase yet because this is all really a prelude to a ground offensive.”
Concerning the meeting between the United States Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, and Israeli authorities, and the impacts of these discussions, Bostic referred to the meeting that was held on Thursday and said, “With this meeting, it turns out that actually, they were more receptive to him, but they were also saying that if we have an indication that a Hamas senior leader, for example, the leader himself, Yahya Sinwar, is in a residential neighbourhood that we said was safe, we’re going to go after him, we’re going to target it. That’s where we are right now.”
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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