Family killed as Israel evacuation order triggers panicked flight from Gaza’s second-largest city

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Hamdan family — around a dozen people from three generations — fled their home in the middle of the night after the Israeli military ordered an evacuation from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.

They found refuge with extended relatives in a building further north, inside an Israeli-declared safe zone. But hours after they arrived, an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday afternoon hit the building in the town of Deir al-Balah, killing nine members of the family and three others.