History of Khan Yunis

th Palestinian Brigade. It was the only site in the Gaza strip where the Egyptian army put up any resistance to the Israeli invasion of Gaza, but it surrendered on 3 November 1956. According to Footnotes in Gaza, a comic book by Joe Sacco, The Israeli Army rounded up residents of the town and the neighbouring refugee camp and shot them on the streets and in their homes. Sacco said that the book generally adopts the Palestinian perspective.

There are conflicting reports of what happened. Israel said that Palestinians were killed when Israeli forces were still facing armed resistance, while the Palestinians said all resistance had ceased by then. The killings were reported to the UN General Assembly on 15 December 1956 by the Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, Henry Labouisse, who reported from "trustworthy sources" that 275 people were killed in the massacre of which 140 were refugees and 135 local residents.

After 1959, the All-Palestine Government of Gaza Strip was abolished and the city was included in the United Arab Republic, which was shortly disestablished and the Gaza Strip came under the direct Egyptian military occupation rule.

In 1967, during the Six Day War Israel occupied Khan Yunis again.

Palestinian control

In the aftermath of the Oslo Accords, Khan Yunis came under the control of the newly established Palestinian Authority.

Khan Yunis was the site of Israeli helicopter attacks in August 2001 and October 2002 that left several civilians killed, hundreds wounded and civilian buildings within the vicinity destroyed. It is known as a stronghold of Hamas which is considered a terrorist group by many countries.

The northern part of Khan Yunis overlooks the Kissufim junction — formerly one of the main