Gazans flee as Israel army pushes into Khan Yunis

Hundreds of Gazans fled the northern neighbourhoods of Khan Yunis on Sunday after Israel issued fresh evacuation orders ahead of a new operation against Palestinian fighters.

Early in the morning the army dropped leaflets and sent mobile phone messages telling residents to leave the Al-Jalaa area of Khan Yunis, which was already considered a humanitarian safe zone.

The military warned Al-Jalaa will become a "dangerous combat zone", forcing Palestinians already displaced numerous times by the Gaza war to pack up and leave looking for a new shelter.

Families gathered their meagre belongings and left the area, fearing fresh missile strikes and fighting, AFP journalists reported.

Crowds of people, mainly from the Hamad neighbourhood in Al-Jalaa, left with whatever they could lay their hands on, some loading mattresses, clothing and cooking utensils into pick-up trucks, while others simply walked with their bags.

Young men and women escorted elderly family members, while others tried to catch a ride to safer zones.

"The IDF (Israeli army) is about to operate against the terrorist organisations in the area and therefore calls on the remaining population left in the Al-Jalaa neighbourhood to temporarily evacuate," the military said in a statement.

Khan Yunis, Gaza's main southern governorate, had already been hit with several evacuation orders in past weeks and devastated by months of bombardment that have reduced residential blocks to piles of rubble.

"Just in the past few days, more than 75,000 people have been displaced in southwest Gaza," said on X Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN refugee agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA.

Lazzarini said the new evacuation orders sent many people fleeing from the early hours of Sunday.

"Some are only able to carry their children with them, some carry their whole lives in one small bag," he said.

"The people of Gaza are trapped and have nowhere to go."

The army also carried out a strike in Khan Yunis on Sunday, wounding several people who were treated at Nasser hospital, residents told AFP.

"They were all civilians and they were shopping in the market when a missile hit and left people lying in the streets," said Awad Barbakh, a resident.

The military has often returned to areas of Gaza where it had previously fought Palestinian militants, only to find them resurfacing or to act on intelligence about the location of hostages.

Gaza's war broke out after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Fighters also seized 251 people, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has so far killed at least 39,790 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.