As operations intensify in the north, the Israeli military has told all residents of Gaza City to evacuate south to the central Gaza corridor.
Flyers dropped by planes instruct “everyone in Gaza City” to leave the so-called “dangerous war zone” through designated safe routes – marked as two roads leading to the shelters in Deir el-Balah and Zawaida.
The United Nations said it was deeply concerned about the evacuation order.
Over the past two weeks, Israeli forces have issued evacuation orders to and re-entered several areas of Gaza City where they believe Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have regrouped since the start of the year.
Fighting continues as indirect talks between Israel and Hamas on a potential ceasefire and hostage release deal are set to resume in Qatar. The talks will be attended by intelligence chiefs from Egypt, the United States and Israel.
It is estimated that more than 250,000 people still live in Gaza City, and some are observed to be evacuating to the south.
But others were reluctant to leave.
Gaza resident Ibrahim al-Barbari, 47, told the BBC: “I will not leave Gaza. I will not make the same stupid mistakes that others have made. Israeli missiles do not distinguish between north and south.”
“If death is my fate and that of my children, we will die with honor and dignity at home,” he said.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducted an “anti-terrorist operation” overnight against Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement fighters operating inside the headquarters of the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa) in Gaza City, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement earlier on Wednesday. .
The statement added that the troops created a “clear corridor to facilitate the evacuation of civilians” before entering the building and “neutralized the terrorists in close combat.”
UNRWA had no immediate comment.
The Israel Defense Forces also said it had killed dozens of militants and dismantled an underground tunnel route in the Shejaya district in eastern Gaza City over the past day.
Speaking in the Knesset on Wednesday, Defense Minister Yov Galant said 60 percent of Hamas militants had been killed or wounded since the Israeli attack. The BBC could not independently verify the figures.
On Tuesday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Express “shock”“ The Israel Defense Forces ordered residents to evacuate to “areas where Israeli military operations are ongoing and civilian casualties continue to occur.”
It also warned that the Deir el-Balah area was already severely overcrowded with Palestinians displaced from other parts of Gaza, with little infrastructure and limited access to humanitarian aid.
On October 7, an unprecedented attack occurred in southern Israel, killing approximately 1,200 people and taking 251 other people hostage. The Israeli military launched an operation to destroy the Hamas organization in Gaza.
Since then, more than 38,295 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
