Gaza Strip: Second-Largest City Destroyed

April 30, 2024 Hour: 3:56 pm

On Tuesday, Save the Children said that Khan Yunis, the second largest city in the Gaza Strip, is now a ghost town due to the level of destruction caused by the Israeli army.

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In a statement, the NGO recalled that more than 200,000 Palestinians lived there before the start of the current cycle of violence on 7 October 2023.

Following the visit of an assessment mission to the area, the group noted that most of the buildings are “severely damaged or are rubble on the ground”.

They noted that some people returned to protect what was left of their property and belongings.

Save the Children: Khan Yunis turned into a “ghost town”
Children are living amid the rubble in the streets of the devasted city of Khan Yunis, the second-largest city in Gaza, according to Save the Children staff returning to the city for the first time https://t.co/CR1IynWbMw pic.twitter.com/4wxD7aNJST

— Palestine Foundation Pakistan (@pak_palestine)
April 30, 2024

Save the Children said it observed many children walking alone in the destroyed streets and near destroyed or badly damaged buildings.

According to an interim assessment by the World Bank, more than 60 per cent of residential buildings and nearly 80 per cent of businesses were damaged or destroyed in Gaza from October 2023 to January 2024.

Khan Yunis was one of the hardest hit towns after the Israeli invasion on the grounds that it was a stronghold of the Islamic Resistance Movement.

The military repeatedly raided the Nasser and Al Amal hospitals, two of the largest in the territory.