The order comes as the United Nations warned that no food aid had been delivered to the northern Gaza Strip since October 1.
advertisementPalestinians in northern Gaza said they were hit by heavy Israeli artillery fire on Saturday, hours after airstrikes killed at least 22 people.
Israeli forces have repeatedly told residents there and in southern Lebanon to leave their homes as attacks against Hamas and Hezbollah continue.
Israeli military spokesman Avichai Adrey told people living in the targeted area that they should head south to Muwash, a dense area in southern Gaza that the military has designated as a humanitarian zone.
The military also ordered the evacuation of patients and medical staff from three major hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip.
Most of the fighting last week was centered in and around Jabaliya, the largest refugee camp in Gaza. The area was attacked by Israeli warplanes and artillery. Residents there said they were trapped inside their homes and shelters.
Food aid to Gaza will be suspended from October 1
The United Nations food agency said on Saturday that no food aid had arrived in northern Gaza since Oct. 1.
The World Food Program (WFP) said the main border crossing into the war-affected region had been closed for about two weeks. The agency also warned that Israel’s ongoing ground operations would have a disastrous impact on the food security of thousands of Palestinian families there.
“The north is basically blocked and we cannot operate there,” said Antoine Renard, WFP regional director for Palestine.
Concerns over a hunger crisis have risen in the Gaza Strip about a month after the United Nations’ independent investigator on the right to food accused Israel of waging a “starvation campaign” against Palestinians.
Israel has denied those claims and insisted it had allowed significant amounts of food and other aid into the Gaza Strip.
“Israel has not stopped humanitarian aid from flowing into or coordinating from its territory to the northern Gaza Strip. As evidence, humanitarian aid coordinated by COGAT and international organizations will continue to flow to northern Gaza in the future,” COGAT, the Israeli military that oversees aid distribution, said in a statement Wednesday.
WFP said airstrikes, military ground operations and evacuation orders had forced the closure of food distribution centers, kitchens and bakeries in northern Gaza.
It is said that the only bakery operating in the Gaza Strip with support from the WFP was hit by an explosive and caught fire.
WFP said the last remaining food supplies in the north, including canned food, flour, high-energy biscuits and nutritional supplements, were distributed to shelters, health facilities and kitchens in Gaza City and three shelters in the northern region.
It is unclear how long these limited food supplies will last, and they warn there will be dire consequences for families who have fled if the escalation continues.
advertisementMore than 42,000 Palestinians have died as a result of Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip, local health authorities said, but more than half of the dead were women and children.
The war has devastated large areas of the Gaza Strip, and approximately 90% of the Gaza Strip’s population of 2.3 million people have become refugees at various times.
Lebanon death toll soars
Israeli forces resumed their offensive in northern Gaza almost a week ago, expanding their air and ground operations against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The United Nations peacekeeping mission said its headquarters in Naqoura came under another attack and one of its peacekeepers was in stable condition after being shot late Friday.
advertisementIt was unclear who fired. This shooting occurred a day after Israeli forces opened fire on the headquarters for two consecutive days. Israel, which has warned peacekeepers to leave, did not immediately respond to questions.
Lebanon’s state news agency said the Israeli airstrike hit an apartment building in the coastal area of Zarout, south of Beirut. The Ministry of Health said four people died and 14 were injured. Hezbollah continued to fire on Israel.
“We will continue to stand with the Lebanese people and the Palestinian people even in difficult situations,” Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Khalibaf said Saturday as he toured the site of Israeli airstrikes in Beirut.
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf visited the affected areas after holding talks with Prime Minister Najib Mikati. Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Lebanon’s priority now was to work toward a ceasefire.
advertisementHis office said the Lebanese government remains in compliance with a 2006 UN Security Council resolution approved after the end of a 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah and is prepared to strengthen the Lebanese army’s presence along the border with Israel.
This is the second recent visit by an Iranian official to Beirut, after Iran’s foreign minister visited Lebanon earlier this month.
Iran is a major backer of the Lebanese Hezbollah group, which has suffered a major setback in recent weeks with the killing of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
Lebanese authorities said Friday that 60 people were killed and 168 wounded in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 2,229 killed and 10,380 injured in a year of conflict between Israel and armed groups.
advertisementIsrael has expanded its campaign against Hezbollah with massive airstrikes across Lebanon and ground incursions on its borders. This comes after a year of fighting.
Hezbollah began attacking Israeli military bases in solidarity with the armed group Hamas in the Gaza Strip in October last year. Since September 23, Israel has intensified its airstrikes, forcing the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese people.
Last week, Israel launched a ground invasion of Lebanon, sparking clashes with Hezbollah fighters on the border.
Syrian Islamic State (IS) camp damaged by US airstrikes
The U.S. military announced that it had carried out a series of airstrikes targeting several camps belonging to the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria.
advertisementU.S. Central Command said the strike “will disrupt ISIS’s ability to plan, organize, and carry out attacks against the United States, its allies, partners, and civilians throughout the region and beyond.”
It said an assessment of battle damage was ongoing and did not include civilian casualties.
There are about 900 U.S. troops in Syria, along with an undisclosed number of contractors, most of whom are working to prevent a counteroffensive by the extremist IS group, which swept through Iraq and Syria in 2014 and seized large swathes of territory.
