Israel's military intends to use"extreme force" in the northern Gaza Strip – this includes a warning to potential returnees to Gaza City. An expansion of the operation in the central coastal area had already been announced.
The Israeli army has declared large parts of Gaza City and the northern border area with Israel a combat zone. Staying in these areas is prohibited, and the Israeli armed forces will act there"with extreme force," the military announced on Platform X.
The evacuation order affects the Gaza neighborhoods of the Old City, Daraj Tuffah, Jabaliya, Sejaiya, and Al-Saitun, as well as the northern border towns of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun. The warning is directed at all Palestinians who have recently returned to these areas or intend to return there in the future, the statement said.
Calls for evacuation by the Israeli army are not uncommon, but this time the area involved is unusually large. However, as a result of Israel's war against the Islamist Hamas militia, most people have long since left Gaza and the area between it and Israel's northern border.
Some had returned after the Israeli military withdrew from large parts of the Gaza Strip, including Gaza City, during a ceasefire earlier this year. Gaza City is considered largely destroyed by the war.
Israeli army plans to expand operations in central Gaza Strip
The Israeli army has also announced an expansion of its operations in the center of the Gaza Strip. The army is expanding its"activities" against the Islamist Hamas around the city of Deir al-Balah to an area "where it has not been deployed before," army spokesman Avichay Adraee explained on Sunday on the online service X.
In an Israeli army statement published in Arabic, spokesman Adraee called on Palestinians living in the affected area to seek safety on the Mediterranean coast in the further south region of Al-Mawasi. Al-Mawasi had been designated a"humanitarian zone" by Israel.
Relatives of the Israeli hostages still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip reacted with concern to the army's announcement. In a statement, they called on the Israeli government to"urgently explain to Israeli citizens and families the nature of the battle plan and how exactly it protects the abductees who are still in the Gaza Strip."
The Israeli army also said it had killed "dozens of terrorists" near Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip and destroyed "terrorist infrastructure," including tunnels some 20 meters underground. The Hamas-led Civil Defense Agency, for its part, said that seven people were killed in further Israeli attacks in Gaza City and the southern Gaza Strip overnight on Sunday.
According to the Hamas-controlled health authority in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army reportedly attacked people again on their way to an aid distribution site. At least 32 people were killed. The Israeli military said it fired warning shots at suspects who approached soldiers. They ignored orders to stop. The incident occurred about one kilometer from an aid distribution site, which was not in operation at the time.
The Gaza War was triggered by the unprecedented massacre carried out by terrorists from Hamas and other groups in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.