CAIRO: Zionist tanks pushed into northern parts of the Khan Younis area in the south of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday and Palestinian medics said Zionist airstrikes had killed at least 20 people across the enclave. Residents said tanks advanced one day after the military issued new evacuation orders, saying there had been rocket launches from the area. With shells falling near residential areas, families left leave their homes and headed westwards towards the humanitarian-designated area of Al-Mawasi nearby.

Medics said 11 people were killed in three airstrikes on areas in central Gaza, including six children and one medic. Five of the dead had been queuing outside a bakery, they said. A further nine Palestinians were killed by tank fire in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, medics said. Zionist military did not immediately comment on the medics’ reports. Troops fired on the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza for the fifth successive day, hospital director Hussam Abu Safiya said, adding that three of his medical staff had been wounded, one critically, on Tuesday night.

“Drones are dropping bombs filled with shrapnel that injure and anyone that dares to move,” said Abu Safiya. “This situation is extremely urgent.” Residents in three towns - Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun - said Zionist forces had blown up dozens of houses. Palestinians say Zionist army is trying to drive people out of the northern edge of Gaza with forced evacuations and bombardments to create a buffer zone. The army denies this and says it has returned to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping in an area where it had previously cleared them out.

Zionists launched their campaign in the densely populated enclave after fighters attacked communities across the border on Oct 7, 2023. Zionist military campaign has since killed more than 44,400 Palestinians, injured many others, and reduced much of the enclave to rubble. Zionists agreed to a ceasefire with the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah last week that halted fighting in a conflict that has unfolded in Lebanon in parallel with the Gaza war. But the Gaza war itself has ground on with only a single ceasefire more than a year ago lasting for a week.

In another development, settlers on Wednesday wounded a Palestinian and set buildings on fire while raiding two villages in the occupied West Bank after a nearby settlement outpost was evicted by Zionist forces, Palestinian and Zionist sources said. “(Zionist) civilians entered the village of Beit Furik” east of the Palestinian city of Nablus, the army said, adding that they “set property on fire, and hurled stones”. Local authorities told AFP the attacks took place early on Wednesday morning.

The army said that the settlers reacted after troops “acted against illegal construction by civilians adjacent to the town of Beit Furik” on Tuesday night, triggering clashes during which the settlers injured two policemen with stones. Nahi Hanani, deputy head of the Beit Furik council, told AFP that dozens of settlers attacked the village “setting fire to a truck in front of one house and another vehicle”, early on Wednesday. “They also set fire to a grocery shop in the village and another house was slightly damaged,” he said.

The army said Zionists also “set property on fire and threw stones” in Huwara, a town to the south of Nablus. Rana Abu Hania, spokeswoman for Huwara’s town hall, confirmed to AFP that one resident was injured when settlers attacked the town early on Wednesday. “They burned two cars and the house of one citizen... The army also demolished a used car lot,” said Abu Hania. Yusef Awadi, a resident of Huwara, told AFP that settlers burned his brother’s house Wednesday morning. — Agencies