Gaza: Israel ordered people out of swathes of the main southern city in the Gaza Strip 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 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 Egyptian border.
Later in the day, the military warned civilians to avoid the main north-south highway between Khan Younis and the central town of Deir al-Balah, saying the road had become a “battlefield”. That indicated Israeli troops were approaching Khan Younis from the northeast, possibly with plans to cut central Gaza off from the south.
Israeli forces largely captured the northern half of Gaza in November, and since a week-long truce collapsed on Friday they have swiftly pushed deep into the southern half. Around 2 million people are now crowded into the 230 sqkm that make up Gaza’s south. Already shelters are overwhelmed, and both Israel and neighboring Egypt have refused to accept any refugees.
“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. “We are beginning to expand the ground manoeuvre to other parts of the Strip, with one goal: to topple the Hamas terrorist group.” Earlier on Sunday, an IDF spokesperson said Israel was expanding its ground operations to the whole of the Gaza strip. The military released footage of troops patrolling in tanks and on foot, in fields and in badly damaged urban areas, and firing from weapons, without specifying the location. Witnesses said that tanks, armoured personnel carriers and bulldozers were seen near Khan Younis. Many of those fleeing the city were already displaced from other areas.