On Monday 1 July, the Israeli military once again issued an evacuation order for eastern areas of Khan Younis and Rafah. Since then, there have already been reports of multiple civilian casualties and scores of injuries. This latest upsurge in Israeli violence comes less than two months after Israeli Occupation Forces withdrew from Khan Younis, the Strip’s second largest city, reducing much of it to rubble.
According to UNRWA, 250,000 Palestinians, many of whom had only weeks ago fled from Rafah, are affected by these latest evacuation orders. The area includes the Gaza European Hospital. Although Israel has said that it will remain safe, directors at the hospital have already begun evacuations out of fear of looming bloodshed. Considering Israel’s systematic attempts to dismantle Gaza’s healthcare system and frequent attacks on hospitals and healthcare workers, itself a violation of international humanitarian law, there are no guarantees that the European Hospital would be safe. Indeed, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has already announced that it was forced to fully evacuate its temporary administrative headquarter in Khan Younis after Israeli shelling on its offices.
We at Friends of Al-Aqsa believe that these latest developments once again affirm the genocidal intent of the Israeli state and its military forces, which continue to indiscriminately target civilian areas in order to make Gaza unliveable. We concur with the UN Security General Antonio Guterres’ spokesman that no place in Gaza is safe. Over the past nine months, Israel has repeatedly displaced Gaza’s civilian population and, now, having destroyed over half of the Strip’s buildings, Palestinians have nowhere to go. Al-Mawasi, where people have been told to evacuate to, is already overcrowded and does not have the infrastructure or resources to house more refugees. Furthermore, despite being designated as a “humanitarian safe zone”, Occupation Forces have frequently attacked it.
Friends of Al-Aqsa condemns this latest stage of Israel’s brutal, genocidal assault on Gaza, where nearly 38,000 people have been murdered since 7 October. It is another reminder of the urgency of the situation and the importance of prioritising Palestine at Thursday’s General Election in the UK. We are committed to continue to hold our elected officials, regardless of who comes into power, to account and demand an end to UK complicity in Israel’s genocide, an immediate ceasefire and self-determination for the Palestinian people.
