Israel’s new warning to Hamas

Israel’s army chief, visiting troops in Gaza on Thursday, threatened to expand the offensive in Gaza if prisoners were not released by Hamas. “If we do not see progress in the return of the hostages in the near future, we will expand our activities to a larger and more significant operation,” Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said.

The warning came as the army issued fresh evacuation orders for northern areas of Gaza ahead of a planned attack.

Earlier in the day, six members of one family — a couple and their four children — were killed when an air strike levelled their home in northern Gaza City, the civil defence agency said in a statement.

Nidal al-Sarafiti, a relative, said the strike happened as the family was sleeping.

“What can I say? The destruction has spared no one,” he told AFP.

Nine people were killed and several wounded in another strike on a former police station in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza, according to a statement from the Indonesian hospital, where the casualties were taken.

“Everyone started running and screaming, not knowing what to do from the horror and severity of the bombing,” said Abdel Qader Sabah, 23, from Jabalia.

In another deadly attack, the bodies of 12 people were recovered after the Hajj Ali family home, also in Jabalia, was struck, the civil defence said.

Another 28 people were killed in strikes across the territory, medics and the civil defence agency reported.

They came as the Israeli military ordered Palestinians living in the northern areas of Beit Hanoun and Sheikh Zayed to evacuate ahead of an attack.

The United Nations has warned that Israel’s expanding evacuation orders across Gaza are resulting in the “forcible transfer” of people into ever-shrinking areas.

Aid agencies estimate that the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents have been displaced at least once since the war began.