The war in Gaza: after Israel’s withdrawal, Khan Younis transformed into an unrecognizable and uninhabitable city

Waves of Palestinians entered the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis on Monday to salvage what they could the vast destruction caused by the Israeli offensive, the day after the Israeli army announced the withdrawal of its troops from the area.

Many have returned to the Gaza Strip’s second largest city finding his old hometown unrecognizable. With dozens of buildings destroyed or damaged, there are now piles of rubble where apartments and businesses once stood. The streets were razed. The fighting damaged schools and hospitals.

Israel sent troops to Khan Younis in December, as part of its ground offensive in response to the attack launched by Hamas on October 7 on southern Israel. According to Israeli authorities, they died there 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and about 250 were taken hostage.

The war, entered into its seventh month, It caused the deaths of over 33,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.according to local health authorities, it has displaced most of the territory’s 2.3 million inhabitants and made large areas of the besieged Gaza Strip uninhabitable.

“Many areas, especially the city centre, they remained uninhabitable” said Mahmoud Abdel-Ghani, who fled Khan Younis in December, when Israel began its ground invasion of the city. “I found my house and those of my neighbors reduced to rubble.”

The withdrawal of Israeli troops from Khan Younis marked the end of a key phase of the war against Hamas and left Israeli troop levels in the small coastal enclave at one of the lowest levels since the war began.

Israel claimed the city was a major Hamas stronghold and that its operation in recent months has eliminated thousands of militants and caused serious damage to a giant network of tunnels used by Hamas to move weapons and fighters. He also claims to have found evidence of the existence of hostages in the city.

Without a military presence in the city, Hamas could try to regroup there, as it has done in other areas where the army has reduced its forces.

The latest Israeli withdrawal has also opened the way for some Palestinians to return to the area search through mountains of rubble to try to recover any personal effects they may have left behind.

Najwa Ayyash, also displaced from Khan Younis, said she could not reach her family’s third-floor apartment because the stairs were gone. His brother climbed over the remains of the destroyed building and brought down some belongings, including lighter clothes for his children.

Bassel Abu Nasser, a resident of Khan Younis who fled after an airstrike hit his home in January, said much of the town had been reduced to rubble.

“There is no life there”, said the 37-year-old father of two. “They left nothing.”

On Sunday, shortly after the announcement of the army’s withdrawal, lines of Palestinians could be seen leaving Khan Younis with their few belongings.

On foot and by bicycle, carried plastic bags and laundry baskets with everything they could carry to the place where they had been displaced. One carried a rolled up mattress. Another, a standing fan. A man used his bicycle to move plywood.

Khan Younis’ military exodus precedes the expected Israeli offensive on Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, where hundreds of thousands of people have fled the fighting in search of refuge and which, according to Israel, It is the last major stronghold of Hamas.

The city is home to 1.4 million people, more than half of Gaza’s population. The prospect of an offensive has caused global alarmincluding Israel’s main ally, the United States, calling for a credible plan to protect civilians.

Allowing people to return to nearby Khan Younis could ease some of the pressure on Rafah, but many have no home to return to. Additionally, the city is likely littered with dangerous unexploded bombs left over from the fighting.

At the start of the war, the Israeli army quietly reduced its troops in the devastated northern Gaza area. But it continues to launch airstrikes and raids on areas where it says Hamas has regrouped, such as Gaza’s largest hospital, Shifa, leaving what the head of the World Health Organization called “an empty shell.” Israel blames Hamas for the damage, claiming it fights from civilian areas.

Khan Younis’ main hospital, Nasser, has also been subject to Israeli raids, with troops storming it earlier this year because The military said there were remains of hostages inside.

The exact condition of the hospital after the withdrawal of troops was unclear. Video from the hospital showed the emergency building apparently intact, but with debris strewn inside, where thousands of displaced people had sought refuge before being forced to evacuate by the military.

Israel says the war aims to destroy Hamas’s military and governance capabilities and recover some 130 remaining hostages, a quarter of whom Israel says are dead. Qatar, Egypt and the United States They are negotiating a ceasefire in exchange for the release of the hostages.

AP Agency