The Israeli army on Monday morning ordered Palestinians living in the eastern neighbourhoods of Khan Younis to leave the area immediately, despite having previously repeatedly stated that the area is a humanitarian and safe zone.
Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a statement that “the presence of numerous military operations and rocket fire from the eastern part of the humanitarian zone has made it dangerous to stay there.” He also added:
Therefore, the army calls on residents who remain in the eastern neighborhoods of Khan Younis to evacuate immediately to the newly designated humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi.
The Israeli army carried out a bloodbath a fortnight ago in Al-Mawasi, which it said was safe, killing 90 Palestinians and wounding 300 in a series of airstrikes on tents and shelters for displaced people.
In violation of a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has come under international condemnation for its ongoing brutal offensive on Gaza following the October 7 Hamas attack. Since then, the Israeli army’s military offensive has killed nearly 39,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured more than 89,700, according to local health authorities.
Epidemics at Khan Younis
Nine months into the Israeli offensive, vast swathes of Gaza lie in ruins under a brutal blockade of food, clean water and medicine, leading to starvation and disease in the enclave.
Meanwhile, poliovirus has been detected in sewage in several locations in the Gaza Strip, including two major cities in the region, World Health Organisation (WHO), Gaza and Israeli health officials confirmed on Sunday.
Among the locations where the poliovirus was detected in sewage were Deir al-Balah in central Gaza and Khan Younis in southern Gaza, two major cities where most residents of the war-torn region now live, officials said.
WHO officials said that while they had received no reports of people contracting polio in Gaza, an investigation was underway to determine how the virus spread. The WHO also added it was working with UNICEF and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to investigate and organise “rapid vaccination campaigns.”
Polio is a highly infectious viral disease that mainly affects children under the age of 5, according to the WHO website. The number of poliovirus cases worldwide has fallen by 99 per cent since 1988. The Israel Defence Forces announced on Sunday that it would vaccinate all soldiers working in Gaza to prevent the spread of the poliovirus. The IDF also said it is working with international organisations to provide polio vaccines to the people of Gaza.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of WHO, sounded the alarm in a statement on Friday, saying:
The decimation of the health system, lack of security, access obstruction, constant population displacement, shortages of medical supplies, poor quality of water and weakened sanitation are increasing the risk of vaccine-preventable diseases, including polio.
Ghebreyesus added:
This poses a risk for children and creates the perfect environment for diseases like polio to spread.
