Israeli forces order new evacuation at besieged northern Gaza town, residents say By Reuters

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO (Reuters) – Israeli forces, waging a weeks-long offensive in northern Gaza, ordered all remaining residents of Beit Hanoun to leave the town on Sunday, citing Palestinian militant rocket fire from the area, residents said.

The order for residents to leave has sparked a new wave of displacement, although it is not yet clear how many people have been affected, residents said.

Israel says its nearly three-month-old campaign in northern Gaza is targeting Hamas militants and preventing them from regrouping.The military says the civilian evacuation orders are meant to keep them out of harm’s way.

Palestinian and UN officials say nowhere in Gaza is safe and that the evacuation is worsening humanitarian conditions for the population.

Much of the area around the northern towns of Beit Hanu, Jabalia and Beit Lahiya has been cleared of people and destroyed, fueling speculation that Israel intends to keep the area as a closed buffer zone after the fighting in Gaza ends.

The Israeli military announced its new incursion into the Beit Hanun district on Saturday.

The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said it had lost contact with people still trapped in the city and was unable to send teams to the area because of the attack.

On Friday, Israeli forces stormed the Kamal Advan hospital in northern Gaza, which the military said was being used by militants, which Hamas denies.

An attack on a hospital, one of three medical facilities on the northern outskirts of Gaza, knocked out the last major health facility, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement on X.

The health ministry said some patients were evacuated from Kamal Advan to a non-working Indonesian hospital, and doctors were barred from joining them.Other patients and staff were transferred to other facilities.

On Sunday, health officials said an Israeli tank shell hit the top floor of the Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, near the X-ray department.

Meanwhile, Palestinian health officials said at least 16 people were killed in Israeli military strikes on Sunday, with one of the strikes killing seven people and wounding another at Al-Wafa Hospital in Gaza, the Palestinian Civil Emergency Services said in a statement. :

The Israeli army said it was looking into the report.

Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 45,300 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-run enclave. Most of the population of 2.3 million have been displaced and much of Gaza is in ruins.

The war began with a Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage in Gaza, according to Israeli figures.

(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by William McLean)