Even in the south… Israeli “departure leaflets” pursue the displaced people of Gaza

Reuters quoted a number of residents in southern Gaza as saying that leaflets were thrown east of Khan Yunis, calling on residents to leave.

The leaflets said, “For residents to remain near the militants or their positions will put their lives in danger.”

Two residents said they saw the posts with their own eyes, while others posted them on the Internet.

One leaflet asks residents of the villages and towns of Al-Qarara, Khuza’a, Bani Suhaila, and Abasan, east of Khan Yunis, to leave.

But the circular does not specify where to go to the residents of these areas.

The leaflet threatened to bomb any home “used by terrorist organizations.”

Operation in the south

The leaflet drop came after Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant vowed that the ground operation would eventually include “southern and northern Gaza.”

There are increasing indications that Israel will launch a ground attack on the southern Gaza area, just as happened in the north.

According to the United Nations, 1.6 million people have become displaced.

The shelter centers run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the southern and central Gaza Strip are suffering from severe overcrowding.

The expected wave of displacement from eastern Khan Yunis is likely to exacerbate overcrowding in shelter centers

Posts on the north

The Israeli forces dropped similar leaflets on areas in the northern Gaza Strip before the start of the major ground attack, late last October, to force them to leave towards the south, which hundreds of thousands of them did.

However, Palestinian reports stated that many convoys of displaced persons were subjected to Israeli raids, and that southern Gaza, specifically after the Gaza Valley area, is exposed, like the north, to Israeli raids.

The United Nations says that “there is no longer a safe place in all of Gaza.”

She stressed that deporting residents of Gaza is a “crime against humanity.”