Israeli army orders new evacuation in northwest Gaza

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: The Israeli military said on Monday it ordered the evacuation of several neighbourhoods and towns near Gaza City, warning of imminent fighting after rockets were launched from the area.

Avichay Adraee, a military spokesman, posted on social media platform X a map showing several areas in the Gaza Strip´s northwest to be evacuated, declaring them part of a “dangerous combat zone”.

Israel has issued numerous evacuation orders during its war against Gaza rulers Hamas, triggered by the Palestinian militant group´s October 7 attack.The evacuation orders have covered most of Gaza´s territory, according to the UN, and include areas where the military had previously said were largely cleared of Palestinian armed groups.

Adraee said Palestinian fighters were “once again firing rockets at the State of Israel” from Gaza´s northwest, a focus of Israel´s military operations in the early stages of the war.Earlier on Monday the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian group fighting alongside Hamas in Gaza, claimed responsibility for rockets launched at southern Israel.

The military said “two projectiles were identified crossing from northern Gaza into Israeli territory” late Sunday, with one intercepted and the other falling in the sea.The vast majority of Gaza´s 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once during more than 11 months of war, according to the United Nations.

Previous evacuation orders have sent people fleeing entire neighbourhoods or towns with whatever belongings they can carry with them.Meanwhile, major Israeli operations across the occupied West Bank are seriously worsening an already “calamitous” situation there that has been deepened by serious settler violence, the UN rights chief said on Monday.

Opening a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Volker Turk decried soaring violence in the West Bank amid major Israeli raids.“In the West Bank, deadly and destructive operations, some at a scale not witnessed in the last two decades, are worsening a calamitous situation there, already aggravated by serious settler violence,” Turk told the council.

Israel´s military on August 28 launched simultaneous raids across several cities and refugee camps in the northern West Bank, killing at least 36 Palestinians, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry.

The military said it killed 35 militants. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed at least 14 of the fatalities as members.Turk stressed that “ending that war and averting a full-blown regional conflict is an absolute and urgent priority”