Khan Yunis, also spelled Khan Younis or Khan Yunus, is a Palestinian city serving as the capital of the Khan Yunis Governorate in the southern Gaza Strip. It has been largely destroyed on account of the ongoing Israel–Hamas war.
Bani Suheila is a municipality in the Gaza Strip, in the Khan Yunis Governorate of the State of Palestine. The town is located 2 km (1.2 mi) east of the city of Khan Younis. As of 2017, Bani Suheila had a population of 41,439 people.
The Khan Yunis Governorate is one of 16 Governorates of Palestine, located in the southern Gaza Strip. Its district capital is Khan Yunis. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the governorate had a population of 426,056 in mid-2022. Its land area is 69.61% urban, 12.8% rural, and 17.57% comprising the Khan Yunis refugee camp.
The Gaza Subdistrict was one of the subdistricts of Mandatory Palestine. It was situated in the southern Mediterranean coastline of the British Mandate of Palestine. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the district disintegrated, with Israel controlling the northern and eastern portions while Egypt held control of the southern and central parts – which became the Gaza Strip, under Egyptian military between 1948 and 1967, Israeli military rule between 1967 and 2005, part of the Palestinian National Authority after the Oslo Accords until 2007, and is currently ruled by the Hamas as a de facto separate entity from the Palestinian National Authority. The parts which Israel held since 1948 were merged into Israeli administrative districts, their connection with Gaza severed.
The year 2023 in Israel was defined first by wide-scale protests against a proposed judicial reform, and then by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, which led to a war and to Israel invading the Gaza Strip.
Events in the year 2023 in Palestine.
The Al Qarara Cultural Museum was a museum in al-Qarara, near Khan Yunis, in the Gaza Strip. Founded in 2016, the museum featured the archaeology and history of the area, collected by its founders and by local community members. It was destroyed by Israeli forces in October 2023.
In July and August 2023, thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip took to the streets to protest chronic power outages, poor economic conditions in the territory, and Hamas's taxation of stipends to the poor paid by Qatar. The rallies, organized by a grassroots online movement called "Alvirus Alsakher". Journalists reported that the protesters numbered "several thousand", and some also burned Hamas flags. Mass protests against Hamas are not common in the Gaza Strip. Previous mass protests against Hamas include the 2019 Gaza economic protests and the 2011–2012 Palestinian protests.
Israeli forces damaged or destroyed at least 16 cemeteries in the Gaza Strip during the Israel–Hamas war (2023–present) in various places in Gaza within Palestine, as determined by evidence gathered by CNN, the New York Times and Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.
The destruction of cultural heritage during the ongoing Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip has included the damage and destruction by Israel of hundreds of culturally or historically significant buildings, libraries, museums and other repositories of knowledge in Gaza, alongside the destruction of intangible cultural heritage. By late January 2024, more than half of the buildings in Gaza had been damaged or destroyed and 1.7 million people displaced.
Hamad City or Hamad Town is an apartment complex and neighbourhood in northwestern Khan Yunis, a city in the Gaza Strip. Named after its benefactor, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani of Qatar, the complex was envisioned as a housing solution for middle to lower-income Palestinian families.
The siege of Al-Qarara was a military engagement between invading Israeli forces and local Palestinian forces.
Israeli forces launched an incursion into Khan Yunis on 22 July 2024 as part of the ongoing Israel–Hamas war. It marked the return of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to the Khan Yunis area inside the Gaza Strip after a previous battle and siege which lasted from December 2023 to April 2024.
On 22 July 2024, Israel sent tanks and launched airstrikes on eastern Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip. The Gaza Health Ministry reported that 73 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, while more than 270 were injured.
Israeli forces launched an incursion into Khan Yunis on 9 August 2024 was a battle in the Israel-Hamas war which began on 9 August 2024. The battle represented the third separate ground operation in Khan Yunis by Israel against Hamas-led Palestinian forces, following the first siege and a brief incursion in the city.
Attacks on protected zones and civilians in Gaza during the Israel–Hamas war have led to the killing of over 30,000 Palestinians and the displacement of over 2 million people, as well as the collapse of the education system and the destruction of most homes and hospitals in Gaza. Israel has faced accusations of war crimes from South Africa, the UN Human Rights Council, and Amnesty International, among others, due to the number of civilian casualties and the percentage of civilian infrastructure destroyed, including Palestinian refugee camps, schools, mosques, churches, and more. Analysis of satellite data shows that 80% of buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or ruined. As of January 2024, researchers from Oregon State University and the City University of New York estimated that 50 to 62 percent of all buildings in the Gaza Strip were damaged or destroyed.
The Israeli invasion of Gaza, which began as a result of the Israel–Hamas war on 7 October 2023, has resulted in significant destruction and damage to numerous religious sites including mosques and churches.
