The Israeli army on Sunday ordered several evacuations in southern Gaza ahead of a new military operation, with residents of a district in Khan Younis that was formerly part of an Israeli-declared "humanitarian zone" among those urged to leave.

The al-Jalaa neighborhood in nothern Khan Younis will no longer be considered part of a humanitarian zone due to "significant terrorist activity" there, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.

The evacuation orders come as most of the enclave's population of 2.3 million is living in temporary accommodation, with many people displaced by fighting between the Israeli military and Palestinian militants from the extremist Hamas group and others.

What did the Israeli military say?

The IDF said civilians in al-Jalaa, who it said were informed via SMS, telephone calls, flyers and other messages in Arabic, should move to a redrawn humanitarian zone.  

"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.

Israel regularly accuses Hamas and other militants of using civilian areas for launching attacks. Hamas is considered a terrorist group by the US, EU, Israel and others.

The Norwegian Refugee Council has recently estimated that evacuation orders issued by Israel in the past few weeks have reduced the total area of "humanitarian zones" in Gaza from 20% of the enclave to a little more than 14%. 

Previous evacuation order

Khan Younis, Gaza's second-largest city, was the target of an air and ground offensive earlier this year that caused considerable destruction.

Last week, tens of thousands of residents fled the area under a previous evacuation order.

Israel has repeatedly issued evacuation orders for areas to which its military has returned after previous operations aimed at eliminating militants have failed to prevent them from coming back.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are now crammed into tent cities with few public services, as international experts warn of famine in the territory.

Sunday's evacuation order comes on the heels of an Israeli strike on a Gaza City school where displaced Palestinians were sheltering, with Hamas-run media saying that scores of people were killed. Israel has called the death toll into doubt, while saying the attack targeted a Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant command post and killed 19 militants.

Israel began its Gaza offensive in reponse to an October 7 attack by Hamas and other militants in southern Israel in which some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in farming communities and army bases near the border. Some 250 people were taken as hostages during the rampage, some of whom have been rescued or returned home in a prisoner exchange, though many remain in Gaza or have died.

tj/nm (AP, AFP, Reuters, EFE)