Israeli military drops leaflets with Quranic verse over Khan Younis in southern Gaza
From Celine Alkhaldi in Jerusalem, Hamdi Alkhshali and Nadeen EbrahimThe Israeli military on Wednesday dropped leaflets over Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, with a Quranic verse about the great flood during the time of Noah.
“The flood overtook them, while they persisted in wrongdoing,” the leaflet reads in Arabic.
The verse comes from a surah in the Quran in which Noah is sent as a prophet to preach for 950 years and warn the people before the deluge. Those who are wrongdoers are swept away in the flood.
The paper bears the logo of the Israel Defense Forces. Video shot by AFP shows the leaflets falling from the sky over Khan Younis.
The leaflet also uses the word “tufan,” or flood — the same word Hamas used to describe its October 7 attack on Israel, the “Al-Aqsa Flood.”
CNN has asked the IDF for the intended meaning behind the leaflet.
The IDF has said it is now operating in “the heart” of Gaza's second-largest city and warned residents earlier this week that “the fighting and military advance of the IDF in the Khan Yunis area do not allow the movement of civilians through the Salah al-Din axis in the sections north and east of the city of Khan Yunis.”