The Palestinian resistance group Hamas called on Sunday on the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) to hold an urgent meeting on the ongoing Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas calls for an end to “genocide”
Hamas stressed the need to “take effective decisions that will lead to an end to the aggression and ongoing genocide against our people in the Gaza Strip, and sever any political, commercial or normalisation relations with the Zionist occupation.”
It also called for “implementing the decisions taken at the joint Arab and Islamic summit held in Riyadh last November 11 to break the blockade and deliver aid and relief to our besieged people in the Gaza Strip.”
Hamas also called on the UN Security Council “to hold an emergency meeting and adopt a decision to oblige Israel to cease its aggression and genocide and stop its blatant violations of laws and treaties, which have become an effective recipe for destabilising regional and international security and peace.”
The Israeli military on Sunday ordered the evacuation of civilians from a humanitarian zone it had set up in the southwestern Gaza Strip, saying it planned to fight in the area because Hamas had “embedded a terrorist infrastructure there.”
It was the Israeli military’s latest evacuation order in 10 months of war, and came a day after Israel gave a similar explanation – that Hamas militants were hiding among civilians – for a strike on a school turned into a shelter that local officials said killed dozens of people.
Strikes on Khan Younis
Tens of thousands of people have fled the town of Khan Younis in recent days following an evacuation order issued by the Israeli military last week. The new order on Sunday extended to the al-Jalaa neighbourhood in Khan Younis. The Israeli military said it was redrawing the boundaries of the humanitarian zone and called on civilians to move to what it said were safe zones. They said they were sending out phone messages, dropping leaflets and relaying those instructions to residents in the area. But many Gazans say there is no truly safe place in the enclave.
Israel has struck the humanitarian zone before, including last month in the neighbourhood of Khan Younis, home to Hamas military wing commander Mohammed Deif, killing at least 90 people, according to Gaza health authorities. Residents also say the repeated orders to move are exhausting, humiliating and costly.
Nearly the entire population of 2.2 million people in Gaza has been displaced by the bloody war, which has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians, according to the enclave’s health authorities.
People in Gaza had “nowhere to go”
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN’s main aid agency for Palestinians, said on Sunday that people in Gaza had “nowhere to go” amid evacuation orders and that more than 75,000 people had been displaced in the southwestern part of the enclave in recent days. “Some can only take their children with them, some carry their whole lives in one small bag,” he said in a social media post.
Israel has adjusted the borders of the humanitarian zone several times before; last month, its area was reduced by more than a fifth. The latest reduction seemed more limited. Maps and analyses of satellite imagery show the zone is overcrowded and frequently hit.
Hours before announcing the evacuation order on Sunday, the Israeli military said it carried out a “targeted raid” in Khan Younis, finding weapons including rifles and explosives in a tunnel. They also said their fighter jets struck dozens of targets and killed militants, including one of those involved in the October 7 attack on Israel.
