UN: Israel Orders More Evacuations Of Gaza's Main Southern City

Palestinian children above the rubble of a building destroyed during Israeli strikes on Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. Mohammed ABED / AFP
Palestinian children above the rubble of a building destroyed during Israeli strikes on Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. Mohammed ABED / AFP
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UN: Israel Orders More Evacuations Of Gaza's Main Southern City

Palestinian children above the rubble of a building destroyed during Israeli strikes on Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. Mohammed ABED / AFP
Palestinian children above the rubble of a building destroyed during Israeli strikes on Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. Mohammed ABED / AFP

Israel ordered the evacuation Wednesday of large areas of Gaza's main southern city, the United Nations said.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Israel had released maps showing new areas covering about 20 percent of the Khan Yunis city that had been marked for evacuation.

Before fighting broke out, the area was home to more than 110,000 people, OCHA said.

The area also includes 32 shelters that housed more than 140,000 internally displaced persons, the vast majority of whom were previously displaced from the north, it added, AFP reported.

The Israeli army said Wednesday that "ground, aerial and naval operations were carried out on dozens of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure" on military command and control centres in Khan Yunis.

Israel's ensuing military campaign in Gaza has so far killed at least 20,000 people, the majority of them children and women, according to the Hamas government.



Palestinian Health Ministry Says One Dead in Israel West Bank Raid

Demonstrators clash with Palestinian security forces in Nablus in the West Bank (File photo/Reuters)
Demonstrators clash with Palestinian security forces in Nablus in the West Bank (File photo/Reuters)
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Palestinian Health Ministry Says One Dead in Israel West Bank Raid

Demonstrators clash with Palestinian security forces in Nablus in the West Bank (File photo/Reuters)
Demonstrators clash with Palestinian security forces in Nablus in the West Bank (File photo/Reuters)

The health ministry in the occupied West Bank said one person was killed and nine injured in an Israeli raid on a refugee camp, with the Israeli military saying Saturday it had opened fire at "terrorists".

An 18-year-old man, Muhammad Medhat Amin Amer, "was killed by bullets from the (Israeli) occupation in the Balata camp" in the territory's north, the Palestinian health ministry said in a late-night statement, adding that nine people were injured, "four of whom are in critical condition".

According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, the raid began on Friday night and triggered violent clashes, AFP reported.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli troops entered the camp from the Awarta checkpoint and "deployed snipers on the rooftops of surrounding buildings".

In a statement on Saturday, the Israeli military said that during the "counterterrorism" operation, "terrorists placed explosives in the area in order to harm (military) soldiers, hurled explosives, molotov cocktails, and rocks and shot fireworks at the forces".

"The forces fired toward the terrorists in order to remove the threat. Hits were identified," the statement said.

Violence in the West Bank has intensified since war broke out in the Gaza Strip after Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Since then, at least 815 Palestinians have been killed in the territory by Israeli troops or settlers, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah.

In the same period, Palestinian attacks in the West Bank have killed at least 25 Israelis, according to official Israeli figures.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since conquering it in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.