Israeli strikes kill at least 17 Palestinians in Gaza, WAFA reports By Reuters

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli airstrikes on the al-Bureij refugee camp and the town of Jabalia in central and northern Gaza on Wednesday killed at least 17 Palestinians, the official Palestinian WAFA news agency reported.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment, although an Arab spokesman in X warned residents of al-Burayj to evacuate the area ahead of an imminent strike against rocket-firing militants.

It also said overnight it had killed a Hamas militant, Abd al-Hadi Sabah, who helped infiltrate Kibbutz Nir Oz during an October 7, 2023 attack by the Islamist group in southern Israel.

The order to clear the al-Bureij camp sparked a new wave of displacement, although it was not immediately clear how many people were affected.

Israel says its nearly three-month-old campaign in northern Gaza is aimed at preventing the regrouping of Hamas militants, and the military says the evacuation orders are meant to keep civilians out of harm’s way.

Palestinian and UN officials say that nowhere in Gaza is safe and that the evacuations are worsening the humanitarian conditions of the population.

More than 1,500 tents sheltering displaced people in the Gaza Strip have been flooded by heavy rains over the past two days, leaving people exposed to the cold and their belongings damaged, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense.

Hundreds more tents were hit by less severe flooding, leaving displaced people unable to use them.

Much of the area around the northern towns of Beit Hanu, Jabalia and Beit Lahia 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 the Gaza Strip ends.

WAFA said the military blew up residential areas in and around Beit Lahia and Jabalia, while tanks shelled parts of Gaza City and al-Bureij camp.

According to health officials in the Hamas-run enclave, Israel’s invasion of Gaza has killed more than 45,500 Palestinians, displacing most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents and leaving much of the tiny coastal strip in ruins.

On October 7, 2023, a Hamas attack on Israel killed 1,200 people and took another 251 hostages in the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli figures.