Israeli army asks all Gaza City residents to evacuate their homes

The Israeli military has asked all residents of Gaza City to evacuate south to the central Gaza Strip, amid an intensified offensive there.

The leaflets dropped from the planes included instructions to “all residents of Gaza City” to leave what it described as a “dangerous combat zone” via designated safe routes – two roads leading to shelters in Deir al-Balah and Zuweida.

The United Nations said it was deeply concerned about the eviction orders.

Over the past two weeks, Israeli forces have issued evacuation orders for and re-entered several areas of Gaza City, where they believe Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have regrouped since the beginning of the year.

The fighting continues as indirect negotiations are set to resume in Qatar on a possible ceasefire and hostage release between Israel and Hamas. The talks will be attended by the heads of the intelligence services of Egypt, the United States and Israel.

In a statement earlier on Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces said its forces “carried out a counter-terrorism operation” overnight against Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters who were operating inside the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza City.

She added that the forces opened “a designated corridor to facilitate the evacuation of civilians” from the area before entering the building and “eliminating the terrorists in close combat”.

There was no immediate comment from UNRWA.

The Israeli occupation army also said that it killed dozens of fighters in the Shujaiya neighborhood east of Gaza City and dismantled underground tunnels over the past day.

On Tuesday, the UN Human Rights Office announced that He said he was “astonished.”“ Based on IDF orders calling on residents to evacuate to “areas where Israeli military operations are taking place and where civilians continue to be killed and injured.”

She also warned that the Deir al-Balah area is already severely overcrowded with Palestinians displaced from other areas of Gaza, that its infrastructure is weak and that access to humanitarian aid is limited.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were kidnapped.

Since then, more than 38,295 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the territory.