In response to an attack on Israeli soil from the Khan Younis region, the Israeli army has issued a new evacuation order for several towns in the east of the Khan Younis and Rafah governorates in the southern Gaza Strip. According to an army spokesman Avichay Adraee, this evacuation order applies to the towns of al-Qarara, Bani Suheila, and other areas in the two governorates.
The al-Quds Brigades, an armed wing of Islamic Jihad, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement that targeted Israeli localities around Gaza. The Israeli army launched a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip on October 27, gradually advancing towards the south of the territory and ordering the evacuation of targeted areas. This was done in an effort to target Hamas, with whom Israel has been at war since October 7.
The conflict between Israel and Hamas began on May 7 when Israel announced an operation in Rafah to eliminate what they claimed were the last battalions of Hamas in the far south of Palestine. The war was ignited by an attack by Palestinian Islamist militants on Israeli soil on October 7, resulting in 1195 deaths mostly civilians. In response, Israel launched a large-scale offensive in Gaza, resulting in over 37900 Palestinians mostly civilians according to data from Health Ministry of Hamas-led government’s statistics.