Palestinians across Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis fled an increasingly fierce Israeli bombardment to try to find shelter in the southernmost city of Rafah, with many evacuating on foot to an area already overcrowded and also being hit by airstrikes.
“The Israeli air and artillery bombardment on the city of Khan Younis over the past two days has been relentless, particularly last night,” said 23-year-old Batoul, who asked not to give her family name for security reasons.
“There was no respite in the onslaught, not even for a moment. The house trembled under the force of the bombing, and doors and windows shattered.”
She and her family fled to Khan Younis in mid-October, taking refuge in a small house with 30 members of the extended family in a situation she described as “catastrophic”.
Batoul, reached by phone, described how women and children screamed throughout the night during the incessant bombardments, including one that struck the neighbouring house.
The Palestinian news agency WAFA said that dozens were killed and injured in a series of dawn airstrikes across Gaza, including several in the southern city of Rafah, which killed at least 12 and injured dozens more.
Journalist Shaima al-Jazzar and her family were among those killed in a strike on their home in Rafah, despite being labelled by Israeli forces as a destination for those fleeing bombardments in Khan Younis.
At least 1.8 million people in Gaza, roughly 80% of the population, are estimated by the United Nations to be internally displaced. The Palestinian health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza estimated 15,500 people have been killed in the Israeli onslaught on Gaza that followed the attack by Hamas militants into Israeli territory on 7 October, in which at least 1,200 people were killed and over 200 more taken hostage.
The health ministry added that at least 400 people were killed in Gaza over the weekend, after the brief ceasefire came to an end. The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment about its demands for the evacuation of Khan Younis.
On Monday, people in a village that lies to the north of Khan Younis told AFP they witnessed Israeli tanks and armoured personnel carriers enter the area.
“The [broadening of the] ground invasion seems imminent. Fighting and airstrikes never stopped last night – fighting on the ground and bombardment by air, land and sea,” said Mohammed Aghaalkurdi, a programme officer with the group Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), also in Khan Younis. “The terror this has caused is catching all of us, and I can’t comfort those around me. The Israeli military meant it when they said Khan Younis would be a battlefield.
“Most of our friends who had escaped Gaza City with us were forced again, today, to escape their shelters in the south of the Strip and find ‘safer’ places. Barely has any kind of aid been delivered to people, nor is there any food left in shops. We are now bartering for things like flour, salt or yeast,” he said.
“The situation is escalating dramatically and steps are quickly being taken towards invading Khan Younis. In the area where MAP’s shelter is, everyone has evacuated, including the UN schools. The UN staff shelter next to us is evacuating too,” he said.
“Please know that there is no such thing as a ‘safe place.’ Nothing is left of our safety or dignity – that’s the actual war we are facing.”
For those who made it to Rafah, their arrival in Gaza’s southernmost city brought little relief amid the overcrowding.
“The situation in Rafah is very bad. We arrived at 10 this morning and until now we have not found a place for accommodation,” said Areej Saqqa, a humanitarian with the organisation EuroMed, speaking in the late afternoon.
“Even the road to get here was very difficult and fraught with risks,” she said, explaining her journey from Az Zawayda in the middle of the enclave, passing through Khan Younis to collect her husband’s family.
“As there’s no electricity or internet, we had no solid news about the duration of the [Israeli] army’s incursion, any secure route or way through. We heard gunfire during our trip, and saw strikes in one part of Khan Younis along the way,” she said.
When Saqqa and her family reached Rafah, they found that rental prices and the price of basic goods had shot up. She found that for toilet paper that used to cost 20NIS (£4.25) some places were charging the equivalent of £21 for the same amount.
“The prices are crazy, insane – even more expensive for us because we lost the source of income and our savings are about to run out, nobody knows when the war will end,” she said.
“We searched all day long for a house or a room for rent, and we found nothing. Anything we did find, the prices were extremely expensive. A house where rent was in the range of $150 or $200 before the war is now in the range of $1,200 or $1,500. Some places were as much as $2,000.”
