The announcement came during delicate negotiations seeking a ceasefire in Gaza, with US and Israeli officials expressing hope that an agreement is closer than ever. A negotiating team will be sent to continue talks on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.
Egypt, Qatar and the United States are continuing to push Israel and Hamas toward a phased ceasefire deal that would stop the fighting and free the hostages.
Netanyahu left Monday for Washington, where he will make a speech before the US Congress and meet with President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris.
In recent months, the Israeli army has launched intense military operations in several areas of Gaza that were previously declared free of Hamas militants.
On Monday, it prepared to launch an operation in parts of Khan Younis governorate, whose namesake city is the largest in the Palestinian territory’s south.
Youssef Abu Taimah, from the town of Al-Qarara in Khan Younis, said this evacuation order was the fourth time his family was displaced.
“We left amid ongoing air and tank shelling, and drones firing shots,” said the 27-year-old, who saw “injured and dead people transported by tuk-tuk (three-wheeled motorcycle) and donkey cart to Nasser Hospital” on the way.
Abu Taimah said his family headed to the humanitarian area of Al-Mawasi, but found there was no space for them in the crowded makeshift encampment.
“We will stay on the street, and even the sidewalks are full of people and tents. We are tired and fed up. Enough of this displacement.”
Ahmed al-Bayouk, a 53-year-old man from Khan Younis, felt similar despair.
“Al-Mawasi is packed with people. There is no empty space,” said Bayouk, who was displaced for the third time, “each time harder than the last”.
“We barely settle for a few days before the army comes, bombs, displaces us, and destroys more,” he said.
“Where should we go? Every place is at risk of bombing.”
Earlier this year, the military had carried out a sweeping operation in Khan Younis for months that saw swathes of the city reduced to rubble and tens of thousands of people displaced to a nearby humanitarian zone.
“At this time, the humanitarian area will be adjusted,” the military said as it ordered the latest evacuation in Khan Younis Monday.
“The adjustment is being carried out in accordance with precise intelligence indicating that Hamas has embedded terrorist infrastructure in the area defined as the humanitarian area.”
The health ministry in Gaza said that at least 14 people had been killed in Israeli army operations in Khan Younis since this morning.
The war in Gaza broke out after the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to official Israeli figures.
Hamas militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom are still in Gaza, including 42 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed more than 38,900 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory.
Additional reporting by Associated Press