Israel’s military ordered the immediate evacuation of civilians from a large part of it on Wednesday Khan Yunisthe largest city in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, as efforts continue to implement a new truce in the Palestinian enclave, where the death toll has now reached 20,000, according to Hamas.

The Israeli military demanded the “immediate and expedited evacuation” of civilians from an area that amounts to “approximately 20%” of the area of ​​Khan Younis, according to a document by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

“The extent of displacement that will result from the expedited removal order is unclear,” OCHA noted.

However, there is no electricity in the Gaza Strip, Israel has cut off the supply, and many residents have only radios and hand-me-downs to stay informed.

According to OCHA, more than 110,000 people lived in the area ordered to be evacuated before the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip began more than two months ago; since then, some 141,000 Palestinians have taken refuge there, forced to flee their homes for safety. from hostilities, settled in 32 camps.

Chahal, the Israeli army, announced on Monday that it was intensifying its operations in Khan Yunis.

Israel’s civil-military leadership has vowed to “eliminate” Hamas after its military arm’s bloody, unprecedented attack on southern sectors of Israeli territory on October 7, when some 1,140 lives were lost, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally. based on official figures available from the Israeli authorities, while another approximately 250 people were abducted and taken to the Gaza Strip, of whom over a hundred were released at the end of November. There are still 129 hostages, according to the Israeli authorities.

The Hamas Health Ministry said yesterday that 20,000 people in the Palestinian enclave have since been killed in Israeli military operations, including at least 8,000 children and 6,200 women.

Diplomatic efforts

Diplomatic efforts continue on various fronts to conclude a second ceasefire and distribute humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

The first, from November 24 to November 1, allowed the release of 105 hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.

On the one hand, Hamas talks with Egypt. The leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement, Ismail Haniya, was in Cairo yesterday to discuss a new “temporary one-week truce in exchange for the release by Hamas of 40 Israeli prisoners, women, children and men”, explained an AFP source in the movement. .

But the negotiations have so far been fruitless, informed sources told the BBC and the Wall Street Journal.

According to a source in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another Islamist movement fighting alongside Hamas and also holding hostages, its leader Ziad al-Nakhla is expected to go to Cairo next week.

On the other hand, Israel is in dialogue with Qatar and the US, emphasizing the release of as many hostages as possible — Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is under increasing pressure from their families.

However, the positions of the parties still seem to be quite far apart.

Hamas demands a complete end to hostilities, which it qualifies as a necessary condition to even discuss the fate of the hostages. Israel says it is open to the idea of ​​a new ceasefire, but rules out a longer ceasefire, insisting it will continue the war until the “elimination” of Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, a movement that the Israeli authorities, the The US and the EU label it a “terrorist” organization.

The war “will continue until the elimination of Hamas, until victory. Those who think we will stop are disconnected from reality,” Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu repeated yesterday.

US President Joe Biden, whose country is Israel’s main ally, acknowledged that the road to a possible truce could be long.

“We don’t expect an agreement at this stage, but we are keeping the pressure on,” he said yesterday.

The White House, however, considers that the talks on the possible truce are “very serious”, as the representative of the National Security Council of the American presidency, John Kirby, put it.

“Where are we safe?”

Bitter negotiations are also expected to continue today at the UN Security Council, where since the beginning of the week a vote on a draft resolution aimed at speeding up the distribution of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip has been postponed three times to prevent them from using the veto them if the US deems that his language is too strong.

UN agencies do not stop warning about the scope of the deep humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. Half the population in the enclave is suffering very severe as extreme famine and 90% are deprived of food often for more than 24 hours, OCHA points out.

The parties must “immediately” ensure that conditions are restored that will allow “large-scale humanitarian operations” to be carried out, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said via X (the former Twitter).

The Gaza Strip has suffered terrible devastation because of this war. Most hospitals have been shut down. Some 1.9 million people – 85% of its inhabitants – were forcibly displaced due to the war.

Israeli bombardment continues, leaving many in despair.

“Where are we safe? Where should we go?” asked yesterday a Palestinian who left the northern part of the Palestinian enclave and arrived in Rafah, after being hit near a school where he took refuge.

“They tell us that this is a safe area (…) We have nowhere else to go, we are trapped in a block 5 kilometers long,” he added, declining to give his name.

On the border with Lebanon

The Israeli army, which says it has suffered 134 casualties in its ranks since it began ground operations in the enclave on October 27 — a section of the Israeli press considers the official count an underestimate — said on Wednesday it had discovered a network of underground tunnels it said were being used by ” senior officials” of Hamas in Gaza City, in the northern part of the area, very close to “shops, government buildings, residences and a school”.

Beyond the Gaza Strip, the war continues to fuel tensions across virtually the entire Middle East.

Last night air defense sirens, which are activated to warn citizens of rocket or missile launches, sounded in northern Israel, on the border with Lebanon.

Chahal also announced that he hit a “command center of Hezbollah”, a Lebanese Shiite movement allied to Iran and Hamas, and that his forces opened fire on its fighters who were moving towards the border, near Metula.

Hezbollah confirmed the death of its fighter who was “going to Jerusalem”.