The evacuation order jolted Munadil Abu Younes one morning earlier this week as he scrolled on his phone reading the news. Israeli forces ordered thousands to flee, including from the area where he was sheltering. His eighth displacement was like nothing that had come before.
“Israeli forces told us about the evacuation order as they entered the area,” he said. “We barely had time to collect our things, most people fled without taking anything. During previous evacuation orders they gave us a day or two, but this time we didn’t even have half an hour.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued a forcible order that covered much of western Khan Younis and part of Al Mawasi, a sandy strip previously designated a “humanitarian zone”.
Gaza’s second largest city was already reduced to little more than shattered cement and piles of rubble. Across Khan Younis, hundreds of thousands began to flee without knowing where to go. The order affected about 400,000 people.
The IDF said it was about to “forcefully operate” against militants in eastern Khan Younis, accusing Hamas of using the area to fire rockets into Israel.
Some received news of the evacuation order through voice messages on their phones. Muhanna Qudeih, 43, from Khuzaa neighbourhood in eastern Khan Younis was on his regular morning trip to the local market to buy vegetables when he began hearing people around him screaming about it.
“I started asking those around me, and they said there were recorded messages on mobile phones ordering everyone to evacuate the area,” he said. He grabbed some essentials and ran to his sister’s house to tell his family. His wife, Qudeih, and their three children have lived with his sister since their house was destroyed during the first Israeli ground invasion of Khan Younis. This would be their fifth displacement.
In Bani Suhaila, east of Khan Younis, Younes and his wife and six children began frantically collecting their most important possessions and packing their car.
“The bombing was initially light, but an hour after the evacuation order it intensified,” he said. “Then, shells came at us from all directions. I wanted to move quickly, but suddenly the street was full of people.” The family drove east towards Salah al-Din Road, only to see Israeli tanks approaching.
“We found people running, racing to escape like judgment day had come,” he said. “Bullets were falling around us like rain, and many people got hit ... We prayed to be able to flee this disaster safely.”
When Qudeih and his family fled their house closer to the centre of Khan Younis, he said they encountered “a shower of bombardment” along with tank and helicopter fire. Several drones hovered above them, “watching everything and shooting,” he added.
People scattered in all directions in search of safety. Many, including Qudeih and his family, fled towards the Nasser hospital in the city, as hundreds of wounded people also poured into the grounds, overwhelming the already struggling facility.
Gaza health officials said that by the evening, the renewed bombing campaign had killed more than 70 people and wounded at least 200 more. Medics pleaded for blood donations and supplies to try to treat the injured, many of whom were laid out on the floor or between beds for lack of space.
Some of those gathered outside the hospital had fled there on foot, leaving their belongings behind in the rush to escape. “As we ran away from the bombings, I saw dead and wounded people laying on the ground,” said a woman who gave her name only as Amal.
“There was no way anyone could save them or even retrieve the bodies, because the bombing was so bad … aircraft of all kinds were hovering low to the ground the entire time.”
Israeli tanks drove deep into Bani Suhaila on the edge of Khan Younis, while soldiers positioned themselves on rooftops. Others reportedly searched the town’s cemetery, and the IDF later described fighting in “close-quarters combat,” amid reports of street battles with Palestinian militants.
For the thousands who escaped the bombs and artillery fire, their latest displacement brought new problems. With nowhere to run to, many like Amal spent the week sleeping in the open, unable to find a place in the shattered homes that remained in southern Gaza. Health officials said 30 more people had been killed and almost 150 injured by Thursday evening.
“We couldn’t find anywhere to settle as there were so many displaced people. Initially we sat on the rubble of a bombed-out mosque. Along with many of the displaced we’re just out in the open now. We’re somewhere with no water, we have to walk far to buy it, food is very scarce and the situation is very difficult,” Amal said.
“We’ve been displaced over and over again, but this time was different and we were stripped of our possessions. These have been the hardest days we have experienced in this brutal war.”
Younes said he eventually found refuge in a south-western area of Khan Younis, but within days it too had received an evacuation order.
“We wish to die, but we continue to live. We are tired, unable to go on,” he said. “We became twice our age during these 10 months.”
