Israel commands residents of Khan Younis in eastern Gaza to leave

The Israeli air force threw down leaflets overnight on Thursday in eastern areas of Khan Younis telling people to evacuate to shelters for their safety.

Evacuations need to be done due to imminent military operations in the area.

Leaflets of a similar nature had already been distributed two weeks prior, but this time they were followed by intense Israeli tank shelling in the eastern neighborhoods.

Khan Younis is in the southern half of the Gaza Strip, sheltering tens of thousands of people exiled from the north.

This is causing severe overcrowding amid shortages of food and water.

“For your safety, you need to evacuate your places of residence immediately and head to known shelters,” the leaflets said, mentioning the neighbourhoods of Khuzaa, Abassan, Bani Suhaila and Al Qarara.” the leaflets read.

“Anyone near terrorists or their facilities puts their life at risk, and every house used by terrorists will be targeted,” the leaflets also included.” it added.

Two-thirds of the Gaza Strip’s population have been made homeless by the war and every available space in Khan Younis and other southern towns is already crammed.

The war has rendered two-thirds of the 2.3 million people living in Gaza homeless.

The U.N. human rights chief said that outbreaks of infectious diseases and hunger seemed unavoidable given the dire living conditions and intensity of crowding on Thursday.

Israel has also used leaflets in northern Gaza to pressure civilians to evacuate, and hundreds of thousands have done so, a mass displacement that Palestinians fear could become permanent.