Nine members of the same family who evacuated Khan Younis were killed by an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday in an area of the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah that Israel declared a so-called “safe zone,” The Associated Press has reported.
Around a dozen members of the Hamdan family fled Khan Younis after Israel gave an evacuation order for the eastern portion of the city, which the UN said will impact about 250,000 Palestinians. The Hamdans found refuge with extended relatives in Deir al-Balah, only for most of them to be slaughtered.
According to AP, a total of 12 people were killed in the Israeli strike on the “safe zone,” including five children and three women. Israel has repeatedly bombed areas it declared safe in Gaza, including the al-Mawasi camp on the coast, which is where the Israeli military said Palestinians evacuating Khan Younis should go.
After Israel ordered the evacuation of Khan Younis, it launched airstrikes on the city that killed at least nine people, including three children and two women. The strikes were launched near the European Hospital, which is also in the area Israel said should be evacuated.
Patients and workers fled from the European Hospital, the largest operating medical facility in Gaza, after the Israeli evacuation order. “Some of the patients were dragged in hospital beds toward Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis by their families. Some of them were transported in ambulances and some of them went on foot,” Saleh al-Hams, who heads the hospital’s nursing department, told The Washington Post.
Israeli forces withdrew from Khan Younis back in April after a brutal assault that destroyed more than 80% of the city’s buildings. The evacuation order signals another invasion might be coming despite Israel claiming to have defeated Hamas in the city.