Bayan News – UN News – On Friday (July 26), the United Nations reported that more than 180,000 Palestinians were forced to flee their homes over the course of four days of intense fighting around the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, during an Israeli military operation to retrieve the bodies of hostages from the area.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stated in a statement that the “intense military operations” in the Khan Yunis area, which came nine months after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, have caused “a new wave of internal displacement across Gaza.”
According to the statement, around 182,000 people were displaced from the central and eastern parts of Khan Yunis between Monday and Thursday, and “hundreds more remain trapped in the east of Khan Yunis.”
The Israeli army had earlier this week ordered the evacuation of parts of southern Khan Yunis, stating that its forces would “act with might” there and in an area previously declared a safe zone.
100 killed
The Israeli army reported on Wednesday that it had recovered the bodies of five people, including a woman and two soldiers, in Khan Yunis, who had been killed and transferred to the Gaza Strip during a Hamas attack on Israel.
Since the latest fighting erupted in Khan Yunis this week, the Israeli army announced on Friday that its forces had “almost 100” people in the city.
IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said the bodies of the hostages were retrieved from tunnels and underground walls.
According to the statement from the Israeli army quoting Halevi, its forces “were close to the bodies of those previously killed, and we did not know how to access them until this week.”
Reports indicate that intense fighting continued on Friday around the eastern parts of Khan Yunis.
Palestinian groups agree to form a “national reconciliation” government
