GAZA, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of Palestinians have been displaced from the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, where the Israeli army and Hamas fighters have engaged in violent fighting amid Israel's intensified attacks and bombings, eyewitnesses said on Wednesday.
Local eyewitnesses said residents of Khan Younis were in a state of fear and panic and sought to find safe shelters in light of the ongoing Israeli bombings, adding thousands of them escaped the western parts of Khan Younis towards Deir al-Balah in central Gaza and Rafah on the southern tip of Gaza.
According to the eyewitnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Israeli army had killed "a number of" Palestinians who were moving towards the city of Rafah or remained inside the tents they had set up as temporary shelters.
A Palestinian security source told Xinhua that the Israeli army had surrounded Al-Aqsa University in the city of Khan Younis, which has accommodated hundreds of displaced people, and asked its residents to evacuate.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society announced in a press statement that at least three displaced people were killed and two others were injured as a result of an Israeli bombing that targeted the northern gate of the society's headquarters in Khan Younis.
Palestinian medical sources in the Nasser Medical Complex said ambulances had great difficulties in transporting the wounded and bodies of the dead from western Khan Younis due to Israelis' heavy gunfire.
The Palestinian presidency called on the international community and the U.S. administration to intervene to prevent the displacement of Palestinians.
The presidency said in a press statement the displacement of Palestinians was a "war crime that cannot be tolerated."
"We warn the international community that the intentions of the Israeli occupation authorities have become clear: to displace the Palestinian people from their land and homeland, with the undesirable consequences that this would entail," the statement noted.
The presidency said it would "go to the UN Security Council to hold an emergency and urgent session to confront this serious crime."
Residents who had just left the city said the latest round of Israeli attacks on Khan Younis was the most violent since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict on Oct. 7, 2023.
During the past 24 hours, the Israeli army killed 210 Palestinians and wounded 386 others in 24 attacks, bringing the total number of Palestinian deaths and injuries to 25,700 and 63,740, respectively, since Oct. 7, 2023, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry on Wednesday. ■
