CAIRO: Israeli forces on Wednesday issued new evacuation orders for Palestinians in areas of northern Gaza, among the first to be imposed at the start of the war with Hamas in October, after militants fired a new barrage of rockets at Israel.
Army spokesman Avichay Adraee issued evacuation orders for several districts in Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, two now largely destroyed towns that Israeli tanks entered at the start of the Israeli ground invasion.
“Hamas and terrorist organizations are firing rockets at the State of Israel from your area. The Israeli forces will respond to them immediately and with all force,” Adraee said in the message sent to Palestinian residents via text message and social media.
“For your own safety, evacuate immediately to the known shelters in the center of Gaza City,” the army spokesman said.
In the nearby Al-Tuffah district of Gaza, three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a house, paramedics reported.
Later on Wednesday, 10 Palestinians were killed in two separate Israeli attacks in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. Medics said an attack west of Khan Younis killed three people on a motorcycle, while seven others were killed in tank attacks on a tent camp in the eastern town of Abassan.
MULTIPLE FRONTS
Fighting continues in the Gaza Strip as Israel prepares for an expected attack in the north of the country by Iran and its close Lebanese ally Hezbollah following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital Tehran on July 31.
The Israeli military said it had killed dozens of Gaza militias in recent days. On Wednesday, it said troops had attacked weapons factories in the crowded Deir Al-Balah district of central Gaza, where tens of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the fighting have sought shelter.
In other central areas, Israeli tanks shelled Nuseirat and Bureij, two of the eight historic refugee camps in the Gaza Strip. Israel claims Hamas fighters are using civilian infrastructure as cover and to hide operational posts and weapons depots; Hamas denies this.
Militants say they continue to carry out ambush attacks with explosive devices on Israeli troops and armored vehicles and are still capable of firing limited rocket salvos at Israel.
On Tuesday, Islamic Jihad, a close ally of Hamas, said it had fired rockets at Israel in response to Israeli “massacres of civilians.”
The Israeli military said Hamas fired rockets from rocket launchers near two international humanitarian aid and distribution warehouses last week, including that of the Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA. Israeli forces attacked the sites, it said.
On October 7, Hamas-led militants began the Gaza war with a cross-border rampage into Israeli communities, killing 1,200 Israelis and foreigners and taking around 250 hostages, according to Israeli sources.
In response, Israel launched a relentless assault on Gaza, reducing large parts of the densely populated coastal strip to rubble. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, over 39,600 Palestinians were killed and over 91,500 injured.
The Hamas-run ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its death lists.
