KHAN YOUNIS residents returned home yesterday to a landscape of shattered multi-storey buildings, charred overturned vehicles and their Nasser Hospital in a shambles, after Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) retreated from the southern Gaza city on Sunday.
The Government Media Office (GMO) issued a statement yesterday refuting Israel’s claims regarding its withdrawal from Khan Yunis.
‘What is happening on the ground is different from what the occupation declares to the media,’ the statement read.
‘The occupation is forced to end its operations before achieving its goals.
‘Every time the occupation army returned to areas where it was supposed to find no resistance, it was surprised by violent and qualitative resistance.’
On Saturday, the Hamas Al-Qassam Brigades declared the deaths of 14 Israeli soldiers in Khan Younis clashes.
Israeli troops withdrew from central Khan Younis after four months of relentless violence and bombardment.
After they left the largely destroyed city, a stream of displaced Palestinians walked back there, hoping to return to their homes from temporary shelters in nearby Rafah.
Returning Khan Younis resident Ahmad Abu al-Rish said: ‘It’s all just rubble. Animals can’t live here, so how is a human supposed to?’
People could not recognise their houses or their neighbourhoods from the amount of destruction. There are no streets any more and even houses that are still standing are unsuitable for living.
Muhammad Yunis said: ‘Isn’t the bombing, death and destruction enough? There are bodies still under the rubble. We can smell the stench.’
Maha Thaer, a mother of four returning to Khan Younis, said she would move back into her badly damaged apartment ‘even though it is not suitable for living, but it is better than tents.’
- Israeli broadcaster Channel 13 TV reported Israel is preparing to start to evacuate Rafah within one week and the process could take several months with about 1.5 million displaced Palestinians sheltering there from incessant attacks.
Military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a ‘significant force’ remains in Gaza to continue ‘targeted operations’.
Israel’s military announced on Sunday it had withdrawn the bulk of its forces from Khan Younis.
But Israeli Occupation Force officials say troops are merely regrouping as the army prepares to move into Rafah. ‘The war in Gaza continues and we are far from stopping’, said military chief, Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi.
- The International Court of Justice (ICJ) began two days of hearings to consider Nicaragua’s request that emergency measures be imposed on Germany over its support for Israel’s war on Gaza.
Nicaragua’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Carlos Jose Arguello Gomez, told the court that Germany had violated the 1948 Genocide Convention by continuing to supply Israel with arms after the ICJ ruled it is plausible that Israel violated some rights guaranteed under the Convention during its assault on Gaza.
‘There can be no question that Germany was well aware, and is well aware, of at least the serious risk of genocide being committed’ in the Gaza Strip, Gomez told the court.
Germany sent 327 million euros ($354m) in military equipment and weapons to Israel in 2023, according to Economy Ministry data.
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