Israel warns 100,000 Gazans to leave homes

A strike on a house in the southern city of Rafah killed two men and a separate raid killed a young man who witnesses said was an Islamic Jihad miltant.

Palestinians inspect the damage of their destroyed house following an Israeli airstrike in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, on Tuesday. Israel resumed airstrikes against the Gaza Strip, after PalestiShow more

GAZA CITY // The Israeli army has warned some 100,000 Palestinians in the eastern Gaza Strip to evacuate their homes, military sources said Wednesday.

AFP correspondents saw flyers dropped over the Zeitun neighbourhood southeast of Gaza City, and residents there and elsewhere also reported receiving recorded phone and text messages urging them to evacuate by 0500 GMT.

New Israeli air and tank strikes in Gaza early Wednesday killed several people, medics said, bringing the death toll from Israel’s operation in the besieged Palestinian territory to 204.

A strike on a house in the southern city of Rafah killed two men, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told AFP, and a separate raid killed a young man who witnesses said was an Islamic Jihad militant.

Another Rafah strike shortly afterwards left one man dead, Qudra said, while a raid on the home of Mohammed al-Arjani in the southern city of Khan Yunis killed his son Abdullah, 19.

About an hour later, tank fire from inside Israel hit the eastern part of Khan Yunis, killing one person, Qudra said, later pronouncing the death of another man there, 33-year-old Mahmud Abu Dakka.

Some of the first raids on Wednesday morning targeted homes of senior Hamas officials, including Mahmud al-Zahar, but there were no reports of casualties in those strikes.

It was the ninth day of Israel’s Operation Protective Edge, which aims to stamp out rocket fire from Gaza militants.

Since July 8, militants have fired nearly 1,000 rockets and mortars into the Jewish state, and Israel has carried out around 1,500 strikes against targets inside the Gaza Strip, according to the army.

Tuesday saw Israel’s first fatality, when a man died from a rocket attack near the Erez border crossing.

Four Israelis have been seriously injured by rocket fire, and Israel’s air strikes have wounded more than 1,500 Palestinians.

International efforts towards a ceasefire collapsed Tuesday, as Hamas rejected an Egypt-proposed truce, and Israel resumed its bombing raids several hours later after continued rocket fire.

*Agence France-Presse