Israel extends evacuation order from Khan Younis as bombing continues

Israel continued its offensive in Gaza on Sunday (11 August) and expanded its evacuation order for Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

Residents in central, eastern and western Khan Younis have been ordered to leave, in one of the largest evacuations since the conflict began, Reuters reported. The tanks returned to eastern Khan Younis just two days ago.

The evacuation announcement was posted on social media platform X and sent to residents' mobile phones via text and audio messages: "For your safety, you must evacuate immediately to the newly established humanitarian zone." Your area is considered a dangerous war zone."

The head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Joseph Lazzarini, said the people of Gaza have nowhere to go.

"Some people can only take their children, some people carry everything in a small bag. They're going to overcrowded places where shelters are already full of families. They lost everything."

The Israeli army said it had struck about 30 Hamas military targets in the past 24 hours, including military buildings, anti-tank missile launching stations and weapons storage facilities.

An Israeli airstrike near the Khan Younis market late Sunday killed four people and wounded several others, medics said.

Tens of thousands of people left their homes and shelters in the middle of the night for Mawasi in the west or Deir Balah in the north, which is already crowded with hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

Mohammed, 28, who lives west of Khan Younis, said: "We are exhausted. This is the tenth time my family and I have left the shelter."

"People are taking their belongings, their children, their hopes and their fears and running into the unknown, because there is no safe place, and we are running from death to death."