The Israeli military called for the evacuation of several areas in northern Gaza on Thursday, again warning that Palestinian militants were launching rockets from there.
"We inform you that the designated area is considered a dangerous combat zone. For your safety, move south immediately," military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X along with a map of the area in Gaza City's northwest.
The latest call follows a series of evacuation orders for large swathes of the Gaza Strip's north, where Israeli forces have intensified their operations since early October.
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer told reporters that "we are isolating Gazan civilians away from Hamas terrorists so we can get to the terrorists" still in that area.
"Right now, there are residents of the northern part of Gaza who have been evacuated to safer places," he added.
Gaza's civil defense agency said 12 people were killed in an Israeli air strike on Thursday on a school housing displaced people in the north of the Palestinian territory.
There were "12 martyrs and a large number of injuries as a result of the occupation aircraft bombing" of a school housing displaced people in Al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, the agency said in a statement.
Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said earlier that at least 27 people were killed in Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip on Thursday.
Deadly airstrikes
At least 22 people have been killed on Wednesday in northern Gaza due to an intensification of Israeli airstrikes, according to medical sources cited by Al Jazeera.
The bombings have focused on Jabalia, Beit Lahia, and Nuseirat in the central area of the enclave.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army announced that it had "eliminated around 50 terrorists" in the last 24 hours in Jabalia, in northern Gaza, and had started an operation in the Beit Lahia area.
In the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported on Thursday that one person had been killed in an Israeli airstrike on the city of Tulkarem, shortly after the Israeli army said it had struck the city.
"A martyr shot by Israeli forces arrived at Tulkarem Governmental Hospital from Tulkarem camp," the ministry said in a statement.
Hours earlier, the Israeli military had said in a statement that "an Air Force aircraft targeted a group of armed terrorists in Tulkarem."
The Palestinian Red Crescent also reported that a 57-year-old woman had been injured by shrapnel in Tulkarem camp.
The city is a stronghold of Palestinian militant groups and is frequently targeted by Israeli military operations.
The Health Ministry also announced that an Israeli strike had killed another Palestinian shortly after midnight Thursday in the nearby city of Jenin.
A Palestinian security source told AFP that the victim was a retired officer from the Palestinian intelligence services, Abdallah Saadi, killed late Wednesday.
Violence in the occupied West Bank, particularly in the northern areas of the territory, has increased since the war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, following the deadly Hamas attack on southern Israel.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, at least 761 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops or settlers in the West Bank during this period.
With AFP
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