Waves of Palestinians entered the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis on Monday to salvage what they could from
the vast destruction caused
by the Israeli offensive, a day after the country's army announced the withdrawal of its troops. of the area.
Many returned to the Gaza Strip's second largest city
to find their former hometown unrecognizable
. With dozens of buildings destroyed or damaged, there are now piles of rubble where apartments and businesses once stood. The streets have been razed. The fighting has damaged schools and hospitals.
Israel sent troops to Khan Younis in December, as part of its ground offensive in response to the attack launched by Hamas on October 7 against southern Israel. According to Israeli authorities,
1,200 people, mostly civilians, died and about 250 were taken hostage.
The war, which has entered 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 inhabitants and has left huge areas of the besieged Gaza Strip uninhabitable.
Khan Younis, destroyed after Israel's offensive in Gaza. AP Photo
"Many areas, especially the city center,
have been left uninhabitable
," declared Mahmoud Abdel-Ghani, who fled Khan Younis in December, when Israel began its ground invasion of the city. "I found that my house and those of my neighbors were turned into rubble."
The withdrawal of Israeli troops from Khan Younis was the end of a key phase of its war against Hamas and left the level of Israeli troops in the tiny coastal enclave at one of the lowest points since the war began.
Israel said the city was a major Hamas stronghold
and that its operation in recent months eliminated thousands of militants and inflicted heavy damage on a giant network of tunnels used by Hamas to move weapons and fighters. He also claims to have found evidence of the existence of hostages in the city.
Without a military presence in the city, Hamas could try to regroup there, as it has done in other areas where the army has reduced its forces.
Israel said the city was a major Hamas stronghold. AP Photo
The latest Israeli withdrawal has also cleared the way for some Palestinians to return to the area and
search through the mountains of rubble
to try to recover any belongings they may have left.
Najwa Ayyash, also displaced from Khan Younis, said she could not reach her family's third-floor apartment because
the stairs were gone
. Her brother climbed over the remains of the destroyed building and took down some belongings, including lighter clothes for her children.
A group of Palestinians carry their belongings among the rubble of houses destroyed after the Israeli military operation in Khan Younis. Photo EFE
Bassel Abu Nasser, a resident of Khan Younis who fled after an airstrike hit his home in January, said much of the city had been turned into rubble.
"There is no life there,"
said the 37-year-old father of two. "They haven't left anything."
On Sunday, shortly after the army announced its withdrawal, lines of Palestinians could be seen leaving Khan Younis with their few belongings.
On foot and by bicycle
, they carried plastic bags and laundry baskets with anything they could take to the place where they had been displaced. One carried a rolled up mattress. Another, a standing fan. A man used his bicycle to move plywood.
Debris of destroyed residential buildings is seen after the Israeli military operation in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip. Photo EFE
Khan Younis' military exodus comes ahead of an expected Israeli offensive on Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city, where hundreds of thousands of people have fled the fighting for refuge and which Israel says
is the last major stronghold .
of Hamas.
The city is home to 1.4 million people, more than half of Gaza's population.
The prospect of an offensive has sparked global alarm
, including in Israel's main ally, the United States, which demands to see a credible plan to protect civilians.
Allowing people to return to nearby Khan Younis could ease some of the pressure on Rafah, but many have no homes to return to. Additionally, the city is likely littered with dangerous unexploded bombs left behind by the fighting.
A general view of the destroyed city of Khan Younis, in Gaza. Photo EFE
The Israeli army quietly reduced its troops in devastated northern Gaza early in the war. But it continues to launch airstrikes and raids on areas where it says Hamas has regrouped, such as Gaza's largest hospital, Shifa, leaving what the head of the World Health Organization called "an empty shell." Israel blames Hamas for the damage, claiming it fights from civilian areas.
The main hospital in Khan Younis, Nasser, has also been the target of Israeli raids, with troops storming it earlier this year because
the military said the remains of hostages were inside.
The exact condition of the hospital after the troops withdrew was unclear. Video from the hospital showed the emergency building apparently intact, but debris strewn inside, where thousands of displaced people had sought shelter before being forced to evacuate by the military.
Israel says the war is aimed at destroying Hamas's military and governance capabilities and recovering the roughly 130 remaining hostages, a quarter of whom Israel says are dead. Qatar, Egypt and the United States
are negotiating a ceasefire in exchange for the release of the hostages.
AP Agency
P.B.