The Israeli military says it has ordered the evacuation of Gaza City, which was an early target of the war that is now seeing renewed fighting.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — The Israeli military said Wednesday it has ordered the evacuation of Gaza City, which was an early target of the war that is now seeing renewed fighting.
The military dropped leaflets on the city, calling on people to head south and saying “Gaza City will remain a dangerous combat zone.”The evacuation order could signal that Israel is expanding an incursion into the city, where it has been operating in several outlying neighborhoods in recent days. It was the latest sign that Hamas is regrouping in areas that Israel previously said it had cleared of militants.
The evacuation order came as U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators were meeting with Israeli officials in the Qatari capital, Doha, for talks trying to push through a long elusive cease-fire deal.Israel says it is pursuing Hamas fighters regrouping in various parts of Gaza nine months into the military’s devastating campaign of airstrikes and ground offensives. But the heavy strikes the length of the territory also could be aimed at hiking up pressure on Hamas in the cease-fire efforts.
Israel ordered residents of northern Gaza, including Gaza City, to flee south months ago as it operated in the area. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have remained in the hard-hit north, and many Palestinians say they have nowhere to go. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are crammed into squalid tent camps in central and southern Gaza.
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