Gaza Strip.– Israel on Tuesday issued a new round of evacuation orders for much of the southern Gaza Strip, prompting thousands of Palestinians to flee once again and seek refuge with relatives.
In recent weeks, Israeli officers have carried out tighter and more precise strikes, though the exodus taking place in the town of Khan Younis made clear Tuesday that for Gazans, a return to ordinary life is far from near.
Gazeños who have already been forced to flee time and again are on the move once again, transporting their belongings in cars, trucks or carts pulled by donkeys.
Hospital patients were placed in wheelchairs along with others who fled on foot.
“How many more times will they order us to leave and then return?” asked a Gazian woman, Suzan Abu Daqqa, 59, after fleeing her home in southeastern Khan Younis.
The evacuation was prompted by a 20-rocket attack that the Israeli military said was fired from Khan Younis by Palestinian militants a day earlier.
Israeli forces responded to the attack overnight after “allowing civilians to evacuate the area,” the army said.
The United Nations has estimated that some 250,000 people will have to flee to larger areas of southern Gaza to comply with the new orders.
Scott Anderson, a senior United Nations official, said the estimate was based on pre-war population data and anecdotal observations about how many people had returned to the area.
That pattern of repeated civilian displacement is likely to continue even as the military talks of a “lower intensity” of the war, military analysts say.
As militants regroup, Israeli forces have been returning to locations where they had withdrawn from days-long crackdowns.
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