Israeli Military Orders Evacuation Of Gaza City Outskirts

JAKARTA - The Israeli military issued a new evacuation order to residents in the eastern suburbs of Gaza, triggering a new wave of evacuations on Sunday.

A new order for the outskirts of Shejaia, which was posted by an Israeli military spokesman in X on Saturday night, was blamed on Palestinian militants firing rockets from a very dense district north of the Gaza Strip.

"For your safety, you must immediately evacuate to the south," the military post said.

The rocket attack on Saturday was claimed by the armed wing of Hamas, which said it had targeted an Israeli military base opposite the border.

Footage circulating on Palestinian social media and media, which Reuters cannot immediately verify, shows residents leaving Shejaia on sawdy trains and rickshaws, while others, including children carrying backpacks, walk.

Families living in targeted areas began leaving their homes after the evening arrived on Saturday and until early Sunday, Palestinian citizens and media said, the latest in several waves of refuge since the war began 13 months ago.

In central Gaza, health officials said at least 10 Palestinians had been killed in Israeli airstrikes in Al-Maghazi and Al-Bureij urban camps since Saturday night.

Adding to the suffering of 2.3 million Gaza residents, most of whom have repeatedly fled, heavy winter rains have flooded hundreds of tents across the enclave, damaging food and sweeping plastic and cloth that have protected them from the weather.

"We ran in the middle of the night, the rainwater flooded the tents, the food ran out, the children screamed and I was worried they would get sick," Gaza City man Rami (37) who took refuge in a former soccer stadium told Reuters via messaging app.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said thousands of displaced people were affected by seasonal flooding, asking for new tents and shells from aid donors to protect them.

Israel's military operations in Gaza have killed more than 44,000 people, expelling nearly the entire population at least once, Gaza officials said, while destroying most of the narrow coastal areas into rubble.

The war erupted in response to cross-border attacks by militants led by Hamas on October 7, 2023, where gunmen killed about 1,200 people and held more than 250 people hostage back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.