Israel army quits east Khan Yunis after killing hundreds more Palestinians 

Thousands of Palestinians returned to their homes in the ruins of Gaza’s main southern city of Khan Yunis today, after Israeli occupation forces ended a week-long raid of the city, Reuters reports.

Palestinian rescue workers and civilians collected dead bodies from the streets of the abandoned battle zone, bringing corpses wrapped in rugs to morgues in cars and donkey carts.

The Government Media Office said Israel’s eight-day-long raid in eastern areas of Khan Yunis killed 255 Palestinians and wounded more than 300 others. At least 30 people remain missing.

After the Israeli occupation forces left, people streamed back to their homes on foot and with carts carrying their belongings. Many found their houses damaged or destroyed. The media office said more than 300 homes had been hit by Israeli fire during the raid, at least 30 of them inhabited when they were struck.

Witnesses said army forces had bulldozed the main cemetery in Bani Suhaila, the town on the eastern outskirts of Khan Yunis that was the main focus of the raid, as well as houses and roads nearby.

“I am coming back and I have faith in God. I don’t know whether we will live or die, but it is all for the sake of the homeland,” said Etimad Al-Masri, who had walked for at least five kilometres back to her home.

“Despite the suffering, we are patient and God willing we will have victory.”

UNRWA: Only 14% of Gaza not under evacuation orders

Many residents said they had been displaced from their homes several times.

“We hope there will be a ceasefire and calm. We hope that they act on a ceasefire so that we can live in security and safety,” said Walid Abu Nsaira, holding some of his belongings on his shoulder as he walked back home.

As the Khan Yunis assault has wound down, Israel has ordered thousands of people out of homes in Al-Bureij in the central Gaza Strip, launching strikes there in apparent preparation for a new raid.

Medics said an Israeli air strike in nearby Nuseirat killed ten Palestinians as they fled from Bureij today, and another strike killed four other Palestinians inside Bureij.

Ten months into the war, Israeli forces have largely completed their storming of nearly the entire Gaza Strip and have spent the past several weeks launching new assaults on areas where they had already claimed to have rooted out Hamas. Thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate their homes, most of them previously displaced several times already.

Efforts to negotiate a ceasefire through mediators, ongoing for months, are once again faltering. On Monday, Israel and Hamas traded blame over the lack of progress.

Hamas wants a ceasefire agreement to end the war in Gaza, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the conflict will stop only once Hamas is defeated. There are also disagreements over how a deal would be implemented.