By Nidal al-Mughrabi Updated October 22, 2024 — 10.30am
Cairo: Israeli troops have besieged hospitals and shelters for displaced people in the northern Gaza Strip, preventing critical aid from reaching civilians, residents and medics said.
Troops rounded up men and ordered women to leave the Jabalia historic refugee camp, they said.
Palestinian health officials said at least 18 people had been killed in Jabalia and eight elsewhere in Gaza in Israeli strikes. An Israeli airstrike on a house in Jabalia killed five people and wounded several others, medics said.
Israeli officials said evacuation orders were aimed at separating Hamas fighters from civilians and denied there was any systematic plan to clear out civilians. It said its forces operating in northern Gaza killed scores of people it accused of being Hamas gunmen.
The Israeli military said in a statement its troops had dismantled infrastructure and tunnel shafts and killed alleged fighters in the Jabalia area. It said troops had helped thousands of civilians to evacuate safely through organised routes, it said, contradicting reports from the UN aid agency.
The UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said Israeli authorities were preventing humanitarian missions from reaching areas in the north of the Palestinian enclave with critical supplies, including medicine and food.