The Israeli army on Sunday urged residents of a northern neighbourhood in Khan Younis to leave the area immediately ahead of a new military operation in the Gaza Strip city.
The al-Jalaa neighbourhood of Khan Younis will no longer be considered part of a humanitarian zone due to “significant terrorist activity” there, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Sunday.
The IDF said civilians in al-Jalaa should move to a redrawn humanitarian zone. The IDF said residents had been informed via SMS, telephone calls, flyers and other messages in Arabic.
“The adjustment is being carried out in accordance with precise intelligence indicating that Hamas has embedded terrorist infrastructure in the area defined as a humanitarian area,” the IDF said.
Nearly 100 people were reported killed in a devastating Israeli airstrike on a school building in Gaza City on Saturday, Palestinians said.
A spokesman for the Hamas-controlled Palestinian civil defence force said at least 93 people died in the building, which was being used as a refugee shelter. The incident prompted international outrage.
The Israeli military confirmed the attack, which it said targeted a Hamas command centre located in the building. At least 19 commanders and fighters of Hamas and Islamic Jihad were killed, the IDF said.
Israeli killed in West Bank
Also on Sunday, an Israeli national was killed in a suspected attack in the West Bank, the IDF said.
The incident saw unknown perpetrators fire shots from a car at several passing vehicles in the north of the Palestinian territory.
According to the Magen David Adom, Israel’s rescue service, two men travelling in separate cars suffered gunshot wounds.
One man was declared dead and the other was flown to hospital by helicopter.
The IDF did not initially provide any information on the identity of the perpetrators. According to Israeli media reports, they fled to a Palestinian village.
IDF forces were said to be still searching for them and blocked roads in the area.
The situation in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has worsened significantly since the start of the current conflict in Gaza, which began after the October 7 attacks by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
More than 590 Palestinians have since been killed in the West Bank in Israeli military operations, confrontations or their own attacks in the West Bank, according to the Health Ministry.
Violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians has also increased markedly since October 7.
