UN, December 21. /TASS/. Israeli authorities have ordered the evacuation of the population in the southern Gaza Strip, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced on Wednesday.

"On 20 December, the Israeli military designated a new area covering about 20 per cent of central and south of Khan Younis city for immediate evacuation," the department’s press service said in a statement.

As noted by OCHA, there are 32 shelters in the territory designated by the Israeli military, which shelter more than 141,000 internally displaced persons forced to leave the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

Earlier, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said the ground operation in Gaza would expand to new areas, including Khan Younis, which the minister said had become the new capital of terror.

Tensions flared up in the Middle East after Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip attacked Israeli territory on October 7, when many Israelis living in the settlements near the border were killed and over 200 people, including children, women and the elderly, were taken hostage. Hamas views its attack as a response to Israeli authorities’ steps against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.