ISRAELI strikes across the southern Gaza Strip killed at least 19 Palestinians overnight into Sunday, including a senior Hamas political leader and several women and children.
The military ordered people to evacuate from part of the city of Rafah on the border with Egypt as it said it would soon attack militants in the already heavily destroyed Tel al-Sultan area.
The Israeli military ordered people to evacuate on foot along a single route to Mawasi, a sprawling area of squalid tent camps. It was not immediately clear if the order signalled a renewed ground operation.
Palestinians could be seen walking along a dirt road and carrying their belongings in their arms, a recurring scene in a war that has forced most of Gaza’s population to flee, often multiple times.
“It’s displacement under fire,” said Mustafa Gaber, a local journalist who left Tel al-Sultan with his family.
In a video call, he said hundreds of people were fleeing as tank and drone fire echoed nearby.
“There are wounded people among us. The situation is very difficult,” he said.
“Remaining in camps, tents, or houses in Tel al-Sultan or walking on any other route endangers your lives,” Colonel Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military’s Arabic language spokesperson, said in a statement.
Hamas said that Salah Bardawil, a member of its political bureau and the Palestinian parliament, was killed in a strike in Mawasi that also killed his wife.
Bardawil was a well-known member of the group’s political wing who gave media interviews over the years.
Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, who are allied with Hamas, meanwhile launched another missile at Israel, setting off air raid sirens.
The Israeli military said the projectile was intercepted, and there were no reports of casualties or damage.
