April 4 (UPI) — Israel said Friday it intensified ground operations in northern Gaza as part of a mission to enlarge so-called “security zones” that provide a protective buffer along the border dividing the Palestinian enclave from Israeli territory.
Israel Defense Forces said its troops had killed a number of “terror operatives,” including a Hamas Nukhba force commander in a drone strike, and taken out a Hamas command center and other infrastructure — but stressed that it was ensuring civilians were able to evacuate to safer areas.
The military action resulted in at least 30 people being killed as of 10:30 a.m. local time, the Gaza civil defense agency told The Times of Israel.
Evacuation orders issued Thursday for the Shejaiya area of Gaza City, formerly one of the largest residential districts in the eastern quarter of the old city, followed extensive demands to Palestinians to move from large areas in the north, as well as swathes of southern Gaza.
On Monday, Israel issued an order covering the whole of Rafah and much of the area between the southern city and Khan Younis instructing tens of thousands of people to move to a humanitarian zone in Al Mawasi ahead of the IDF “returning to fight with great force” to neutralize the threat from militants once and for all.
Around 280,000 people have been displaced since Israel’s March 18 resumption of its war on Hamas eight weeks into a cease-fire and hostage release/prisoner exchange deal, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Elsewhere, the IDF said it had killed Hamas commander Hassan Farhat in Lebanon in a strike on the southern port city of Sidon. The military said Farhat was in charge of Hamas’ western sector in the country.
Farhat was allegedly behind a series of attacks on Israel, including firing a barrage of rockets at Safed in northern Israel, killing 20-year-old female soldier Omer Sarah Benjo on Feb. 1, 2024, and injuring eight other military personnel stationed at the IDF’s Northern Command headquarters base in the city.
OCHA’s weekly Humanitarian Situation Update for Gaza, published Friday, said mass casualty attacks occurred on Wednesday and Thursday with dozens of reported casualties at shelters where displaced people were sheltering.
So-called ‘no-go’ areas and or areas covered by active evacuation orders, accounted for almost two-thirds of the land area of the strip and more than 280,000 people had been displaced in the past two weeks, the agency said.
The alert added that Gaza faced renewed risk of hunger and malnutrition as Israel’s full-scale aid blockade, now entering its second month, had virtually halted all flour distribution, shuttering subsidized bakeries that provide one of the main food staples for people in the strip.
“Children in Gaza bear the brunt of violence and displacement, which heighten the risk of family separation,” said OCHA.
