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The order came not long after Palestinian health authorities said dozens of people, including children, were killed in strikes on a school turned shelter. Israel said it was looking into the reports.
April 4, 2025, 7:36 a.m. ET
The Israeli military has called on residents to evacuate several neighborhoods in Gaza City, the latest in a series of orders that have forced Palestinians to flee as Israel again escalates its offensive against Hamas in the war-battered Gaza Strip.
The new evacuation order late Thursday came not long after the Palestinian health authorities said dozens of people, including children, were killed in Israeli strikes on a school turned shelter in Gaza City. Israel said it was looking into the episode.
The departure order has brought renewed hardship to Palestinians who had already endured displacement from their homes and miserable conditions during the first 15 months of the war. A shaky two-month-old cease-fire between Israel and Hamas collapsed in mid-March after they failed to reach an agreement to extend it, ending a brief respite for Palestinians in Gaza.
The Israeli military has since embarked on a major bombing campaign throughout Gaza that Israeli officials have said was intended to compel Hamas to release more hostages. Avichay Adraee, the military’s Arabic-language spokesman, said in a post late Thursday on social media that he was providing a “final” warning before a new attack, urging people to relocate southward. Mr. Adraee suggested that militant groups were operating among civilians in the area.
While many people have complied with such evacuation orders from the military during the most recent Israeli campaign, others have chosen to stay in their homes or shelters, saying they could not bear being displaced — many of them have already been uprooted several times during the war — or that they have nowhere else to go.
The Israeli military has said it was looking into reports about the Thursday incident in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City. As of Friday morning, it said it still could not comment.
