Avichay Adraee, an Arabic language spokesperson for the Israeli army, has issued a new forced displacement order to residents of Beit Hanoon, Beit Lahiya and the neighborhoods of Sheikh Zayed, al-Manshiya and Tal al-Zaatar.
He said this was a “final warning” to flee to shelters in Gaza City before the Israeli military would begin a raid on the areas.
Before Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023, about 275,000 people lived in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah.
By February last year, about 1.4 million displaced people were sheltering in Rafah, an area of about 65 sq km bordering Egypt, which Israel had promised would be a “safe zone”.
The UN children’s fund (UNICEF) has released a statement, saying the breakdown of the ceasefire and resumption of Israel’s “intense bombardments” and ground operations in the Gaza Strip has left at least 322 children dead and 609 injured.
It said this results in a daily average of about 100 children killed or maimed over the past 10 days, Al Jazeera reported.
“Most of these children were displaced, sheltering in makeshift tents or damaged homes,” the statement read.
Elsewhere in the occupied West Bank, at least four Palestinians have been injured in an attack by illegal Israeli settlers, under the protection of Israeli forces, in the town of al-Auja, near Jericho, according to the Wafa news agency.
The report said the victims were on a picnic at a spring in al-Auja on the third day of Eid al-Fitr when they were physically assaulted and pepper sprayed by settlers who had a herd of sheep grazing in the area.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says at least 50,399 Palestinians are confirmed dead and 114,583 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 2023. Gaza’s Government Media Office updated its death toll about two months ago to more than 61,700, saying that thousands of people missing under the rubble are presumed dead.