IDF Orders Palestinians to Leave Khan Yunis

The IDF ordered a mass evacuation of Palestinians from much of Khan Yunis on Monday, a sign that troops are likely to launch a new ground assault into the Gaza Strip’s second-largest city.

The order suggests Khan Yunis will be the latest target of Israel’s raids into parts of Gaza it had previously invaded in the war, as it pursues regrouping Hamas terrorists. Much of Khan Yunis was destroyed in a long assault earlier this year, but large numbers of Palestinians had moved back to escape another Israeli offensive in Gaza’s southernmost city, Rafah.

The evacuation came as Israel released the director of what was once Gaza’s largest hospital after holding him for seven months. The hospital had been used as a Hamas command center, a fact that he and other Palestinian health officials have denied. The doctor said he and other detainees were held under harsh conditions and tortured.

Monday’s evacuation order covered the eastern half of Khan Yunis and a large swath of the Gaza Strip’s southeast corner. Earlier in the day, the army said a barrage of rockets out of Gaza was fired from Khan Yunis.

As night fell, streams of civilians trudged on foot beside a steady flow of vehicles as people began making their way out of the evacuation zone.

Israel told people to move to Muwasi, a coastal area designated by the Israeli army as a safe zone and which has become filled with tent camps.

The order suggested a new assault into Khan Yunis was imminent. Israeli forces fought for weeks in Khan Yunis earlier this year and withdrew.

Last week, the IDF ordered an evacuation from the north Gaza district of Shijayah, and intensive fighting has followed.

Netanyahu said Monday that the IDF was “making progress toward ending the phase of the destruction of Hamas’s terror army.” But he said forces will continue to “target their remains going forward.”