CAIRO/GAZA: Israeli tanks returned to the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis on Friday, forcing thousands to evacuate along congested roadways, as Palestinian fighters continued to attack Israeli troops from the ruins, residents and the military said.
Families fled eastern Khan Younis in vehicles and on foot, belongings heaped on donkey carts and motorcycle rickshaws as they made their slow escape along congested roads.
With Israel and Lebanon braced for a possible escalation in fighting, leaders from the United States, Egypt, and Qatar attempted a last-ditch effort to revive efforts to halt the fighting in Gaza, scheduling a new round of talks for Aug. 15.
In recent weeks Israeli forces which swept into nearly the entire Gaza Strip over more than ten months of war have been returning to the ruins of areas where they previously claimed to have driven Hamas fighters out.
Israel tells Gazans to temporarily vacate southern Khan Younis areas
In the latest assault, the military dropped leaflets ordering residents and displaced people sheltering in eastern Khan Younis, Gaza’s main southern city, to evacuate from an area that has already seen repeated waves of fighting.
Families packed into buses and cars, many seeking shelter in Al-Mawasi, a sandy stretch of ground along the coast, though some expressed fear that it has been attacked in the past despite being designated as a safe zone by Israeli forces.
“We don’t know where are we going, to the beach to Al-Mawasi, any place we will stay at. There is no safe place here. They struck everywhere, they already struck Al-Mawasi and many people were killed. There is no safety, the safety is with God,” said displaced man Ahmed al-Farra.
Um Raed Abu Elyan said she and her family were “running from the fire, we are running with our children from fear”.
Asked where would she go she replied: “God knows, we are walking now. They said to go to humanitarian areas, but there is no safe place here in Gaza. It is all destroyed and damaged.”
Israel returns 80 Palestinian bodies to Gaza, keeps up military pressure
The Israeli military said troops hit dozens of targets belonging to Hamas in Khan Younis and Rafah close to the Egyptian border, seizing arms depots, destroying infrastructure and killing dozens of fighters equipped with weapons including rocket propelled grenades.
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