Palestinians Forced to Flee Khan Younis, Come Under Fire by Israeli Military

Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Palestine — As Israel continues its destruction of Gaza, over 1.7 million Palestinians of the 2.3 million living in Gaza are now internally displaced and over 27,000 have been killed. In late January, the Israeli military began forcibly moving the civilian population out of Khan Younis, where they had previously ordered them to evacuate to.

On January 29, Unicorn Riot heard from several civilians fleeing Khan Younis as Israeli tanks overlooked the population. At one point, the military can be heard shooting at the crowd.

“We are evacuating, but we remain steadfast. We remain steadfast until the last day of our lives,” said an elder woman as she fled. “Allah is our all-sufficient support, shame on Arab countries who haven’t yet found us any solution. They are just watching us.”

A man who had just fled a hospital where he was taking refuge said a helicopter hovered over the hospital and announced to the crowds that they needed to leave.

“We were sitting at the hospital when a helicopter arrived and announced through a microphone that we needed to evacuate all the facilities immediately until further notice.”

“The situation is catastrophic there.” He said, “People were burying the deceased near the hospital; they weren’t even able to go to the cemeteries. People are dying, and there are no doctors, Dr. Mohammad is the only doctor left and he’s the one doing everything. Utter Panic!”

Both hospitals in Khan Younis are on the verge of collapse. The al-Amal Hospital has been under siege by Israeli forces since January 23.

Most of the 2.3 million residents in Gaza have been pushed into Rafah, which is the next target for Israeli’s ground assault according to Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant.