Editing Khan Yunis (section)

===Ancient period===
[[Herodotus]] describes a city named ''Ienysos'' ({{Langx|grc|Ιηνυσος}}) located between [[Lake Bardawil|Lake Serbonis]] and [[Gaza City|Kadytis]] (modern Gaza city). He talks about how the Persian military marched through the location on its way to Egypt. He also describes how the coastal area between [[Gaza City|Kadytis]] and Ienysos was inhabited by [[Bedouin|local Arab tribes]]. Some sources, due to phonological resemblance of the names and due to the general matching of the geographic locations, associate this site with modern Khan Yunis.<ref name="Retsö">Retsö, J. (2014). ''The Arabs in antiquity: Their history from the Assyrians to the Umayyads - "Chapter 9: The Age of the Achaemenids - Herodotus of Halicarnassus"''. Routledge.</ref>

Other sources have suggested a further inland location of "Khirbet Ma'in Abu Sitta" (Palestinian village depopulated in 1949, near modern kibbutz of [[Nir Oz]])<ref>Abu-Sitta, S. H. (2017). ''Mapping my return: A Palestinian memoir''. American University in Cairo Press.</ref> or the Egyptian town of [[Arish]] as possible locations of Ienysos, but there is no clear evidence to support this identification.<ref name="Retsö"/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Verreth |first=Herbert |title=The northern Sinai from the 7th century BC till the 7th century AD. A guide to the sources |publisher=Leuven |year=2006 |volume=1 |pages=263}}</ref>

Ancient discoveries in Khan Yunis feature a [[lintel]] with a [[Greek language|Greek]] inscription, discovered repurposed in the tomb of Sheikh Hamada. The inscription translates to: '''Hilarion - giving thanks to [[Saint George|St. Georgius]]''.' Originally housed in the Musée de Notre Dame de France in Jerusalem, the lintel is currently lost.<ref>{{Citation |title=XXXVIII. Khan Yunis |date=2014-07-14 |work=Volume 3 South Coast: 2161-2648 |pages=569–570 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110337679.569/html |access-date=2024-02-25 |publisher=De Gruyter |language=en |doi=10.1515/9783110337679.569 |isbn=978-3-11-033767-9}}</ref>