Casualties among displaced Palestinians by Israeli fire as they flee eastern Khan Younis

ANKARA

Several Palestinians on Monday night were killed and injured in Israeli shelling while fleeing eastern areas of Khan Younis on evacuation orders by the army to the Palestinians in the area.

The Palestinian official news agency Wafa quoted local sources that said the Israeli army struck the eastern areas of Khan Younis with heavy artillery, forcing the Palestinians to leave their areas under the fire and threats.

The Israeli army forced thousands of displaced Palestinians sheltering in tents around the Gaza European Hospital, in eastern Khan Younis, to leave under the shelling.

The Health Ministry in Gaza is yet to confirm the number of casualties.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army continued its airstrikes and artillery shelling across the Gaza Strip, including heavy shelling on the Shejaiya neighborhood, eastern Gaza City, and the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, Wafa agency also said.

Medical sources late on Monday told Anadolu that the medical teams moved several patients and injured people from the Gaza European Hospital to Nasser Hospital in central Khan Younis.

They added that the hospital’s technical teams also moved some medical devices and equipment out of fear that it would be damaged if the Israeli army raided the hospital.

The Israeli army on Monday ordered residents of eastern Khan Younis to immediately leave, claiming the area has become a "dangerous combat zone."

The army asked the people to head to areas known as humanitarian zones in the western part of the city, known as the Al-Mawasi area.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.

At least 37,900 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and around 87,060 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Over eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.