A day after the Israeli army announced its withdrawal from the city of Khan Younis, the second largest in the Gaza Strip, groups of Palestinians began returning yesterday to salvage what they could from the rubble. A broom, a mattress or plastic buckets were some of the items that civilians carried through the destroyed streets.
“Many areas, especially in the city center, have become unsuitable for life,” explained Mahmoud Abdel Ghani, who fled Khan Younis in December, when Israel began its ground invasion of the city. “I discovered that my house and my neighbors' houses have become rubble,” he lamented.
Najwa Ayyash, another displaced person from Khan Yunis, said she was unable to reach her family's home, on the third floor of an apartment building, because the staircase had disappeared. However, her brother was able to climb through the rubble and find clothes for her children. Bassel Abu Nasser, another resident who fled after an airstrike hit his home in January, said much of the city had been reduced to rubble. “They haven't left anything,” said the father of two.
On Sunday, shortly after the army announced its withdrawal, lines of Palestinians began to be seen leaving Khan Younis carrying their few possessions. On foot and by bicycle, they carried plastic bags and baskets with everything they could collect. A man was carrying a rolled up mattress. Another a standing fan. Another used his bicycle to carry plywood.
The departure of the Israeli army from Khan Younis could be a tactical maneuver with a view to preparing its announced offensive on Rafah, the southernmost city of Gaza, where 1.4 million displaced people - more than half of the population of the strip - they take refuge from the fighting and which, according to Israel, is the last major stronghold of Hamas. These claims worry the international community and have received harsh criticism from the US government, which demands a plan to protect civilians.
Allowing the displaced to return to nearby Khan Yunis could relieve some pressure on Rafah, but most of them have no homes to return to and the city is likely littered with unexploded ordnance. The Nasser hospital, the city's most important, has also been the target of Israeli attacks and was raided earlier this year because the army said there were remains of hostages inside. The current status of the hospital is unclear. A video released after the Israeli withdrawal showed the emergency building apparently intact, although with debris inside.
The Israeli army continued its attacks yesterday morning in the north, center and south of the strip, in a conflict that already exceeds 33,200 deaths, although every day it is more difficult to count the new fatalities due to the destruction of the majority of hospitals, which reported the arrival of bodies to their morgues.
Humanitarian organizations and the UN accuse Israel of using hunger as a weapon of war. Half of the enclave's population is at risk of famine. At least 31 people have died of starvation, 27 of them children, according to the UN, which reports that among children under two years of age, 1 in 3 suffers from acute malnutrition.
