Israel Destroys ‘Everything’ in Khan Younis

Khan Younis is a wasteland one blogger wrote refering to the mass destruction of the second biggest city that lies to the south of the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army in its Division 98, Friday, withdrew from the city of Khan Younis after a 22-day bloody military operation that left mass destruction in its wake.

The social media has been inundated with news about their withdrawal. However, news websites point out the Israeli army had pulled out from several parts of the cities of Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip after “completing their mission” in these areas.

Initial reports reported that at least nine people have been recovered in different parts of Khan Younis by Palestinian civil defense and there is more expected as the search continues.

“These were originally safe areas as told to us by the Israeli army and then they told us these were combat zones and we had to leave, we left our things behind us and they destroyed it,” one woman who returned said.

Reports talk about widespread destruction, ruined infrastructure and bombed out housing and buildings that have been turned into rubble and wreckage with a sense of déjà vu of when will this destruction end but nobody knows and nobody wants to think about what is next.

Like scenes repeated over the past months, dead bodies lying and strewn on the streets dominate the wrecked city as if this the most natural thing in Gaza.

The spokesman of the Israeli army announced officially, Friday, was the end of operations in Khan Younis as being confirmed by Jewish media reports.

As the army left, they allowed the residents of the city to return back to their houses. Over the past weeks the army have been ordering these people to keep moving but to were?

Now these people have been allowed to come back. People are finding it in total destruction, even more so than they have left it. They are also wondering when will the Israeli army return.

This is their third mass invasion in less than a year.

Many point out including Israeli newspaper Haaretz that the Israeli troop withdrawal means that Israel has lost in Gaza; Other than destruction they have not been able to destroy Hamas fighters, nor get to the underground tunnels or free the 109-or so remaining hostages.  

CrossFireArabia

CrossFireArabia

Dr. Marwan Asmar holds a PhD from Leeds University and is a freelance writer specializing on the Middle East. He has worked as a journalist since the early 1990s in Jordan and the Gulf countries, and been widely published, including at Albawaba, Gulf News, Al Ghad, World Press Review and others.

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Israel Continues to Target Children – UN Report

Israel continues to commit genocide and other atrocity crimes by deliberately targeting Palestinian children, a UN report said on Tuesday.

“Israeli authorities and security forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian children resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Gaza Strip and war crimes in the West Bank,” read the report published by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel.

The commission said it had concluded last year that Israel committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and found that the intense scale and systematic nature of the Israeli military operations have continued, causing unprecedented death, injury and trauma among Palestinian children.

“The deliberate targeting of children is one of the key elements establishing genocidal intent of the Israeli authorities and security forces to destroy the Palestinian group, in whole or in part, in Gaza,” the commission said.

“The evidence shows that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces,” said Srinivasan Muralidhar, chair of the commission.

“Even after the October 2025 ceasefire, children continue to be killed and seriously injured, with continued disregard by Israel for the ceasefire and for the protection owed to Palestinian children under international law,” he added.

“Palestinian children have been arrested and subjected to torture and other severe forms of mistreatment in Israeli prisons and detention facilities, with no information on their whereabouts,” the commission said.

“Israeli security forces have also used sexual violence against children as part of the collective shaming and oppression, entrenched within a prolonged, ethnic, gendered, and intergenerational pattern of Israeli occupation and hostilities,” it added.

The report said Israel’s targeting of neonatal and maternity care centers in Gaza directly harmed the survival of newborns and Palestinians’ reproductive future, including increases in miscarriages, birth defects and lasting vulnerabilities among newborns.

“Starvation imposed by Israel through blockade and siege have further caused the death of Palestinian children and severely impacted the health of many others, depriving them of essential nutrition and increasing disease risks amid reduced immunization, food insecurity and destroyed health services,” it also said.

“Even if the bombs and guns fall silent in Gaza and West Bank, Palestinian children will not simply recover overnight,” Muralidhar said. “The destruction of their health, education and development is irreversible.”

“The protection, care and survival of Palestinian children are inseparable from the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination,” Muralidhar said. “By targeting children, Israel is attacking the very capacity of the Palestinian people to exist and to determine their future.”

The commission said it had identified Israeli military units responsible for killing and injuring Palestinian children and made recommendations to Israel and UN member states to ensure accountability.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, Israeli attacks have killed 1,021 Palestinians and injured 3,249 others since late 2025 in daily violations of the ceasefire in effect.

Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza since October 2023 has killed 73,032 people, injured over 173,300 and caused massive destruction to about 90% of the enclave’s infrastructure, with the United Nations estimating reconstruction costs at about $70 billion.

Since October 2023, West Bank cities and towns have seen near-daily Israeli raids, including arrests and home searches. The escalation by the Israeli army and occupiers has killed 1,173 Palestinians, wounded 12,666, led to the arrest of about 23,000 and displaced 33,000, according to official Palestinian figures. Anadolu

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