: Palestinians carrying belongings on their way in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza due to the recent Israeli attacks on December 04, 2024. [Getty]
Israeli forces carrying out a weeks-long offensive in northern Gaza ordered any residents remaining in Beit Hanoun to quit the town on Sunday, alleging rocket fire from the area without providing evidence, residents said.
The fresh expulsion orders caused a new wave of displacement, although it was not immediately clear how many people were affected, the residents said.
Palestinian and United Nations officials say no place is safe in Gaza and that evacuations worsen the humanitarian conditions of the population.
Much of the area around the northern towns of Beit Hanoun, Jabalia and Beit Lahiya has been cleared of people and razed, fuelling speculation that Israel intends to occupy the area after its military offensive on Gaza ends.
The Israeli military announced its new push into the Beit Hanoun area on Saturday.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said it had lost communication with people still trapped in the town, and it was unable to send teams into the area because of the raid.
On Friday, Israeli forces stormed the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza. Israel alleges it was being used by Palestinian fighters – a claim denied by Hamas.
Israel has repeatedly targeted Gaza hospitals under the pretext that they were being used by fighters – without providing any evidence.
The raid on the hospital, one of three medical facilities on the northern edge of Gaza, put the last major health facility in the area out of service, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a post on X.
Some patients were evacuated from Kamal Adwan to the Indonesian Hospital, which is not in service, and medics were prevented from joining them there, the Health Ministry said. Other patients and staff were taken to other medical facilities.
On Sunday, health officials said an Israeli tank shell hit the upper floor of the Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital in Gaza City near the X-ray division.
Meanwhile, Palestinian health officials said Israeli military strikes across the enclave killed at least 16 people on Sunday.
One of those strikes killed seven people and wounded others at Al-Wafa Hospital in Gaza City, the Palestinian civil emergency service said in a statement.
Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes committed during his country’s military campaigned on the besieged strip, where more than 45,300 Palestinians, according to health officials in the enclave.
Most of the population of 2.3 million has been displaced and much of Gaza is in ruins.
