Freed from the yoke of the Israeli armed forces, Khan Junis is a kind of window into the future that may await the Palestinians after the war. If Israel allows them to continue living in Gaza, everything will have to start over.
Khan Junis is no longer the same city as it was six months ago. All that remains is the memory of the city.
Israel on Sunday announced that its armed forces were withdrawing their ground troops from the southern parts of the Gaza Strip. This allowed thousands of Gazans to return to Khan Junis, the region’s largest city. Before the Gaza war, about 400,000 people lived there.
After arriving there, however, many had to state that there was nothing to return to. The Israeli forces had left behind complete destruction.
“The opponent was just a mess. The place had not only been bulldozed, it had been made completely unrecognizable”, describes a Palestinian aid worker in the newspaper he saw The Washington Postille.
The Israeli armed forces left behind a badly destroyed city in Khan Junis.
They also say the same BBC: n locals interviewed.
“The destruction is enormous. Everything has to be rebuilt. The place is not viable even for animals”, says Abu Saif Abu Mustafa for the British Broadcasting Corporation.
Khan Junis has been one of Israel’s main targets in the Gaza war. The country’s armed forces have hit the city with all their might.
In the Gaza war Khan Junis has been one of Israel’s main targets. The country’s armed forces have hit the city with all their might, because Israel has considered it a hiding place for the leaders of the extremist organization Hamas.
Israel believes that Khan Yunis was also one of the planning sites for the October 7 terrorist attacks. In addition, the city is known as the leader of Hamas Yehya Sinwarin as a place of birth.
The destruction in Khan Junis can be seen as a reflection of Israel’s effort to destroy Hamas. At the same time, the destruction can also be seen as a reflection of Israel’s attitude towards Gazan civilians. During the war in Gaza, they have had little other option but to flee from one place to another.
Freed from the yoke of the Israeli armed forces, Khan Junis is a kind of window into the future that may await the Palestinians after the war. If Israel allows them to continue living in the Gaza Strip, everything will have to start over.
“The houses are uninhabitable, and you can’t retreat to the mosques to pray. The roads and the entire infrastructure have been destroyed, including electricity,” he says Rashad Khamis al-Najjar BBC:lle.
About 400,000 people lived in Khan Junis during the Gaza war. The picture is from September 2021. At this point, it was more than two years before the start of the war.
At the moment The fate of Khan Junis seems to threaten Rafah in southern Gaza.
Since the beginning of the war, it has been a kind of safe haven for Gazan civilians, as the area has been spared the worst destruction. There, water and sanitation facilities as well as hospitals are still partially operational. During the war, an estimated half a million people from different parts of Gaza have packed into Rafah.
On Monday, the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu announced, that the timing of the attack on Rafah has been decided. He did not say when the attack would be carried out, but said it was necessary.
Israel’s plans to attack the Rafah area have raised resistance around the world. This week France, Egypt and Jordan, among others, have appealed to Israel to refrain from the attack.
Israel’s main ally, the United States, has also announced its opposition to the ground attack. According to the US State Department, an attack on Rafah would be extremely damaging not only to civilians but also to Israel’s own security.