CAIRO: Israeli forces on Wednesday issued new evacuation orders for Palestinians in areas of northern Gaza that were among the first to be hit at the start of the war with Hamas in October, after the militants fired a fresh volley of rockets at Israel.
Army spokesman Avichay Adreye issued evacuation orders for several areas in Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia, two now largely destroyed towns that Israeli tanks entered at the start of Israel's ground invasion.
“Hamas and terrorist organizations are firing rockets from your area towards the State of Israel. The IDF will act decisively and immediately against them,” Adrai said in a message sent to Palestinian residents via text and social media.
“For your safety, evacuate immediately to known shelters in central Gaza City,” an army spokesman said.
Medics reported that three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Al-Tufa, a nearby district of Gaza City.
Later on Wednesday, 10 Palestinians were killed in two separate Israeli strikes in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. Medics said one strike killed three people on a motorcycle west of Khan Yunis, while another seven were killed by tank fire that hit a tent camp in the town of Abbasan, east of the city.
HOW MANY FRONTS
Fighting continues in the Gaza Strip, even as Israel prepares for an expected attack in its north by Iran and its close Lebanese ally Hezbollah, following the July 31 assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital, Tehran.
The Israeli military says it has killed dozens of Gaza militants in recent days, and on Wednesday said troops struck weapons factories in the densely populated Deir al-Balah neighborhood of central Gaza, home to tens of thousands of Palestinians displaced by battles shelter
In other central areas, Israeli tanks shelled Nuseirat and Bureij, two of the eight historic refugee camps in the Gaza Strip. Israel claims that Hamas militants use civilian infrastructure to cover and conceal operational posts and weapons caches; Hamas denies this.
The militants say they continue to carry out ambushes against Israeli troops and armored vehicles with explosive devices, and may still launch limited rocket salvos at Israel.
On Tuesday, Islamic Jihad, a close ally of Hamas, said it fired rockets into Israel in response to what it called Israeli “mass killings of civilians.”
The Israeli military said last week Hamas fired rockets from launchers installed near two international humanitarian aid and distribution depots, including UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Israeli forces struck those locations, it added.
Hamas-led militants began the war in Gaza on October 7 with a cross-border attack on Israeli communities, killing 1,200 Israelis and foreigners and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli estimates.
In response, Israel launched a relentless assault on Gaza, leaving much of the densely populated coastal strip in ruins, killing more than 39,600 Palestinians and injuring more than 91,500, according to Gaza's health ministry.
The Hamas-led ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its death tolls.
