JERUSALEM (Reuters) – At least 17 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on al-Bureij refugee camp and the town of Jabalia in central and northern Gaza on Wednesday, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment although in a post on X, its Arab spokesman had earlier warned residents of al-Burei to evacuate ahead of an imminent attack on militants firing rockets from the area.
It was also said overnight to have killed Abd al-Hadi Sabah, a Hamas militant who helped lead the infiltration of Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Islamist group’s October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.
The order to clear the al-Bureij camp sparked a new wave of displacement, although it was not immediately clear how many people were affected.
Israel says its nearly three-month campaign in northern Gaza is aimed at preventing Hamas militants from regrouping. His instructions to civilians to evacuate are meant to protect them from danger, the military says.
Palestinian and United Nations officials say that no place is safe in Gaza and that the evacuations are worsening the humanitarian conditions of the population.
According to the Palestinian Civil Defense, more than 1,500 tents sheltering displaced people across Gaza were flooded by heavy rains over the past two days, leaving people exposed to the cold and their belongings damaged.
Hundreds more tents experienced less severe flooding that still left displaced people unable to use them.
Much of the area around the northern towns of Beit Hanoun, Jabalia and Beit Lahiya has been cleared of people and leveled, fueling speculation that Israel intends to keep the area as a closed buffer zone after the fighting in Gaza ends.
WAFA said the army blew up residential blocks in Beit Lahija and in and around Jabalia, while tanks shelled parts of Gaza City and the al-Bureij camp.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 45,500 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-run enclave. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced, and much of the tiny coastal strip is in ruins.
In the attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, 1,200 people were killed, while another 251 people were taken hostage in Gaza, according to Israeli data.
