Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups say they are fighting in the town of Jabalia, northern Gaza.
The Israeli military said its troops had killed “a large number of terrorists” in the Jabalia refugee camp, while Hamas said it had killed several soldiers.
Tens of thousands of civilians have fled Jabalia since Saturday, when the army announced it would return to the area because Hamas had regrouped there.
Heavy fighting also continues around the southern town of Rafah.
The UN says 450,000 refugees have been displaced since an Israeli ground operation began in the city’s eastern suburbs nine days ago.
With tanks now entering built-up areas and the two neighboring border crossings closed or inaccessible, supplies and medical services are dwindling.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday he was “dismayed” by the escalation in Rafah, warning that it “is making an already disastrous situation worse.”
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday rejected criticism of his operation, saying: “The humanitarian catastrophe that has been talked about has not materialized and it will not materialize.”
Israel launched a military campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group’s cross-border attack on southern Israel on October 7, in which around 1,200 people were killed and another 252 taken hostage.
Since then, more than 35,230 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement Wednesday that its troops launched “an operation against terrorists and infrastructure in the center of Jabalia camp” overnight.
“Over the past day, IDF troops in the area engaged in intense combat against dozens of terrorist cells and eliminated a large number of terrorists,” the statement added.
Hamas’ military wing also reported fighting inside the Jabalia camp on Wednesday and said fighters had targeted Israeli troops with anti-tank missiles and various other explosive devices.
He said a dozen soldiers were killed in attacks on a bulldozer, a tank and a house in the Block 4 area of the camp. The Israeli army reported no casualties.
The Hamas-affiliated Safa news agency reported that air and artillery strikes caused widespread destruction in areas where troops had advanced.
Separately, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa said four people were killed in an overnight Israeli airstrike on a house in the town of Jabalia.
Wafa also said there was heavy shelling on the Zeitoun neighborhood in eastern Gaza City, from which Israeli troops withdrew on Wednesday after a separate six-day operation.
The Israeli military said troops had “eliminated dozens of terrorists in clashes and airstrikes, destroyed terrorist infrastructure and located numerous weapons.”
Residents of Zeitoun told BBC Arabic’s Gaza Today program that many of them had been forced to flee due to the intensity of the bombing and fighting.
“The biggest problem we face in Zeitoun is that no ambulances or civilian rescue teams are arriving. So if your son is injured, he will continue to bleed before your eyes until he dies,” said Atef al-Mashalti.
“Such a thing makes any father helpless. Fear has gripped my son to the point that he has to repeat the Shahadah (the Islamic declaration of faith) in anticipation of death at any moment.”
On Tuesday evening, the Hamas-led Civil Defense said it had found the bodies of five people, including a woman and her child, in two Israeli airstrikes in Sheikh Radwan and another part of Gaza City. .
The Israeli military said planes struck around 80 “terrorist targets” across Gaza over the past day, including military compounds and weapons storage facilities.
Israel reduced its military operations in the north in January after saying it had “dismantled” Hamas battalions there. But that left a power vacuum in which the group could rebuild.
An estimated 300,000 people trapped in the devastated region are also experiencing “widespread famine” due to a lack of humanitarian aid, according to the head of the World Food Program.
Israel says it must send troops to Rafah in the south because Hamas’s remaining battalions are based there, along with the group’s leaders and surviving hostages.
The UN and Western powers have warned that a widespread ground attack could lead to significant civilian casualties and a humanitarian catastrophe.
The Israeli army has ordered the evacuation of a number of neighborhoods since May 6, when it launched what it called “precise operations in specific areas east of Rafah and on the Gazan from the Rafah crossing”.
A statement Wednesday said troops targeted a Hamas training compound, “eliminating terrorists in hand-to-hand combat” and locating weapons and “equipment intended to simulate that of the IDF.”
Israeli troops reportedly advanced to within 1 mile of central Rafah on Tuesday when an Israeli soldier was killed in the south.
The Israeli army has asked displaced residents to head to an “expanded humanitarian zone”, which extends north from the coastal strip of al-Mawasi to the town of Deir al-Balah, in the middle zone from Gaza.
Hind Khoudary, a Palestinian journalist from Deir al-Balah, told the BBC that many of those who owned Rafah were now taking refuge there.
“Unfortunately, the Middle Area is overcrowded with people. We are talking about a very small area that is supposed to accommodate over a million Palestinians,” she said.
“They also asked people to go to Khan Younis, but it is completely destroyed and… people don’t have access to basic needs, like water.”
She also noted that some of those still in Rafah could not afford a vehicle to leave or were waiting for the IDF to tell them to evacuate.
“People are tired. They have been displaced more than seven or eight times… So the situation is deteriorating every minute,” she warned.
News Source : www.bbc.com
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