Palestinians returning to Khan Younis after Israeli withdrawal discover an unrecognizable city

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Streams of Palestinians poured into the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis on Monday to salvage what they could from the vast destruction left in the wake of the Israeli offensive, a day after the Israeli army announced it. withdrew its troops from the area.

Many returned to the Gaza Strip’s second-largest city and found their former hometown unrecognizable. With many buildings destroyed or damaged, piles of rubble now sit where apartments and businesses once stood. The streets were bulldozed. Schools and hospitals have been damaged by the fighting.

Israel sent troops to Khan Younis in December as part of its all-out ground offensive in response to an Oct. 7 Hamas attack in southern Israel. Israeli authorities say 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and around 250 people taken hostage.

The war, now in its seventh month, has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to local health authorities, displaced most of the territory’s 2.3 million residents and left large areas of the besieged Gaza Strip uninhabitable.

“Many areas, especially the city center, have become unfit for life,” said Mahmoud Abdel-Ghani, who fled Khan Younis in December when Israel began its ground invasion of the city. “I discovered that my house and those of my neighbors were reduced to ruins. »

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

Israel said the city was a major Hamas stronghold and its operations in recent months have killed thousands of militants and inflicted heavy damage on a vast network of tunnels used by Hamas to move weapons and fighters. He also claimed to have found evidence that hostages were being held in the city.

With no military presence in the city, Hamas could seek to regroup there as it has in other areas where the army has reduced its forces.

The latest Israeli withdrawal also allowed some Palestinians to return to the area to wade through the mountains of debris and try to hold on to whatever belongings remained.

Najwa Ayyash, who was also displaced from Khan Younis, said she was unable to reach her family’s apartment on the third floor because the stairs were missing. Her brother climbed through the destruction and destroyed some belongings, including lighter clothing 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 become rubble.

“There is no meaning to life there,” said the 37-year-old father of two. “They didn’t leave anything there.”

On Sunday, shortly after the army announced its withdrawal, lines of Palestinians could see Khan Younis appear with few possessions.

On foot and by bike, they carried plastic bags and laundry baskets containing whatever they could gather to their travel location. One of them was carrying a rolled up mattress. Another fan standing. A man used his bicycle to move plywood.

The military exodus from Khan Younis comes ahead of an expected Israeli offensive in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost town, where hundreds of thousands have fled fighting elsewhere to seek refuge and which Israel says is the last major stronghold of Hamas.

The city is home to some 1.4 million people, more than half of Gaza’s population. The prospect of an offensive has sparked concern around the world, including from Israel’s main ally, the United States, which has demanded a credible plan to protect civilians.

Allowing people to return to nearby Khan Younis could ease pressure on Rafah, but many have no place to return to. The city is also likely filled with dangerous unexploded bombs left over from the fighting.

The Israeli army quietly withdrew its troops from devastated northern Gaza earlier in the war. But it continued to carry out airstrikes and raids in areas where Hamas regrouped, including Gaza’s largest hospital, Shifa, leaving what the head of the World Health Organization called ” an empty shell. Israel blames Hamas for the damage, saying it is fighting from civilian areas.

The main Nasser hospital in Khan Younis was also the target of Israeli raids, with troops storming it earlier this year because the army said the remains of the hostages were there.

The precise condition of the hospital after the troops withdrew is unclear. Video from the hospital showed the emergency building appearing intact, but debris was scattered inside, where thousands of displaced people once sought shelter before being forced to evacuate by the military.

Israel says its war aims to destroy Hamas’s military and government capabilities and return the approximately 130 remaining hostages, a quarter of whom Israel says are dead. Negotiations brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States to achieve a ceasefire in exchange for the release of the hostages are underway.

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Magdy reported from Cairo.

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See more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war