Palestinians return to decimated Khan Younis
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Stunned Palestinians found their home city unrecognizable Monday as they filtered in to salvage what they could from the vast destruction left by Israeli troops who withdrew from southern Gaza’s Khan Younis a day earlier after months of fighting and bombardment.
With thousands of buildings destroyed or damaged, families tried to find their homes along streets bulldozed down to the dirt, surrounded by landscapes of rubble and debris that were once blocks of apartments and businesses. On other blocks, buildings still stood but were gutted shells, scorched and full of holes, with partially shattered upper floors dangling off precipitously.
The scenes in Khan Younis underscored what has been one of world’s most destructive and lethal military assaults in recent decades, leaving most of the tiny coastal territory unlivable for its 2.3 million people. It also portended what is likely to happen in Gaza’s southernmost town of Rafah, where half of Gaza’s uprooted population is now crowded, if Israel goes ahead with plans to invade it.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu escalated his pledge to take the offensive to Rafah, declaring in a video statement Monday, “It will happen. There is a date,” without elaborating. He spoke as Israeli negotiators were in Cairo discussing international efforts to broker a cease-fire deal with Hamas.
Israel sent troops into Khan Younis in December, part of its blistering ground offensive that came in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and hostage-taking into southern Israel. Its withdrawal brought Israeli troops in the tiny coastal enclave to one of the lowest since the war began.
The war, now in its seventh month, has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to local health authorities. Israeli authorities say 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and roughly 250 people taken hostage in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.
Many of the thousands who came to Khan Younis by foot and on donkey cart on Monday have been sheltering in Rafah. The withdrawal gave them a chance to see the wreckage of their homes and retrieve a few possessions. But with the city now unlivable, they said they had little immediate chance to return.
An estimated 55% of the buildings in the Khan Younis area — around 45,000 buildings — have been destroyed or damaged, according to the latest figures from two researchers in the U.S. who have been using satellite imagery to track destruction throughout the war, Corey Scher of City University of New York and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University.
“Where do I sleep? Where do
I go?” Heba Sahloul’s aged mother sobbed in despair, sitting amid the rubble of what was left of the family’s living room. Her daughters searched for anything they could take with them. The room’s walls were blown away and the floor was piled with chunks of concrete, slabs of the ceiling and broken countertops.
Sahloul said Israeli troops had ordered them to leave during the fighting. “We left all our things here, and we went out with only our clothes,” she said. Her father was killed earlier in the assault, leaving Sahloul, her sisters and her mother. “We are only six women at home and we do not know where to go or where to stay,” Sahloul said.
Israel said Khan Younis was a major Hamas stronghold and that its operations there killed thousands of militants and inflicted heavy damage to a vast network of tunnels used by Hamas to move weapons and fighters. It also claimed to have found evidence that hostages were held in the city.