Khan Yunis, Gaza Strip.– The Israeli military on Monday ordered Palestinians to evacuate much of Khan Younis, a sign that Israeli troops are likely to launch a new ground assault on the Gaza Strip’s second-largest city.
The order suggests that Khan Yunis will be the scene of another Israeli incursion into Gaza. Much of Khan Yunis was destroyed in an earlier attack this year, but large numbers of Palestinians have since returned to escape another Israeli offensive in another Gaza city, Rafah.
Separately, Israel released the director of Gaza’s main hospital after holding him for seven months without charge or trial over allegations that the medical center had been used as a command center by Hamas, which he and other Palestinian medical officials have denied. He said he and other detainees had been subjected to harsh conditions and torture.
The decision to release Mohammed Abu Selmia raised questions about Israel’s claims regarding Shifa Hospital, which Israeli forces have raided twice since the start of the war against Hamas nearly nine months ago.
His release sparked an uproar across Israel’s political spectrum. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office called it a “grave mistake.” Government ministers and opposition leaders expressed outrage, insisting that Abu Selmia played a role in Hamas’s alleged use of the hospital, although Israeli security services rarely unilaterally release prisoners if they have suspected links to militants.
Evacuation of Khan Yunis
Monday’s evacuation order covered the eastern half of Khan Younis and a large area in the southeastern corner of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military said Monday that a barrage of rockets had been fired from Khan Younis into Gaza.
The order raised concerns that a new assault on the city was imminent. Israeli forces attacked Khan Younis for weeks as recently as this year and withdrew, claiming to have destroyed Hamas battalions. But elsewhere where the army has made similar claims, the new raids have highlighted Hamas’ capabilities.
Last week, the army ordered the evacuation of the Shujaiya district in northern Gaza, which was followed by intense fighting.
Netanyahu said Monday that the military was “making progress in ending the destruction phase of the Hamas terror army.” But he said the Israeli military would continue “to attack its remnants in the future.”
New fighting in the Khan Younis area could make it even more difficult for Palestinians to access much-needed drinking water. In the evacuation area there is a water pipeline that Israel installed following criticism for cutting off water supplies to Gaza at the beginning of the war.
Also in the zone is the area around the Kerem Shalom border crossing, the main aid crossing into southern Gaza, and an aid route into the territory that Israel has said it would safeguard.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes, with many forced to move several times. Israeli restrictions, fighting and the breakdown of law and order have hampered the delivery of humanitarian aid, exacerbating widespread hunger and sparking fears of famine.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the new evacuation order “proves once again that there is no safe place in Gaza” for Palestinian civilians. “It is another stop in this deadly circular motion that the people of Gaza have to endure on a regular basis,” he said in a statement calling for a ceasefire.
The release of the hospital director
The decision to return Abu Selmia and 54 other Palestinian detainees to Gaza appeared designed to free up space in overcrowded detention centers. Since the start of the war, Israeli forces have detained thousands of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, another Palestinian territory under Israeli occupation. Many are held without charge or trial in what Israel calls “administrative detention.”
“Our detainees have been subjected to all kinds of torture behind bars,” Abu Selmia told a news conference. “There was torture almost every day.”
He said guards used sticks to beat detainees and terrorized them with dogs. He said some detainees had limbs amputated because of poor medical care. He said one beating caused him to bleed from the head and that guards broke his finger.
The allegations have not been independently confirmed, but they are consistent with other accounts from Palestinians who have been in Israeli custody. There has so far been no response from the Israeli prison service, which has denied other similar allegations.
Israeli forces raided Shifa Hospital in November on the grounds that Hamas had set up an elaborate command and control centre inside the complex. Abu Selmia and other workers denied the allegations, saying Israel was recklessly endangering thousands of patients and displaced people sheltering there. Abu Selmia was arrested on 22 November.
Amid the uproar caused by the release of Abu Selmia, the various Israeli state bodies responsible for the arrests blamed each other.
Netanyahu’s office said Abu Selmia “should be in prison” and that the prime minister had ordered a thorough review of how the release had come about. He said the decision was made “without the knowledge of the political hierarchy or the heads of the organisations”.
Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s national security minister who controls the country’s police and prison service, blamed the Defense Ministry.
The office of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the release of prisoners is the responsibility of the prison service and the Shin Bet internal security agency. The prison service said the decision was made by the Shin Bet and the military, and published a document ordering their release that was signed by a reserve army general.
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