Israel bombs Gaza after displacement orders, kills two Palestinians

What the report says

Al Jazeera, citing medical sources and reporting by Anadolu, said Israeli strikes killed at least two Palestinians in Gaza on Thursday after the military issued displacement orders for several areas. The report said the bombardment hit locations including the Bureij and Jabalia refugee camps and the Zeitoun and Tal al-Hawa neighborhoods of Gaza City, amid what it described as an intensifying escalation despite a United States-brokered ceasefire that began last year.

Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Gaza City, Ibrahim al-Khalili, reported that residents in four areas had been told to leave before heavy attacks followed, including strikes affecting places people had been ordered to evacuate. The outlet said one attack in Gaza City caused a major fire, while a separate strike on a building in Zeitoun injured several people, according to a source at al-Ahli Hospital.

The report placed the violence against the backdrop of stalled efforts to implement a US plan for Gaza, including an International Stabilization Force. Al Jazeera said Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty urged US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, during talks on the sidelines of ASEAN foreign ministers’ meetings in Manila, to speed up deployment of that force and support a Palestinian committee to administer Gaza. The article also cited Israeli media reports of Moroccan officers visiting Gaza ahead of a possible role in the force, and said Morocco had announced plans to send security personnel and set up a field hospital.

Al Jazeera also reported continuing severe humanitarian conditions. It cited UN agency analysis estimating 1.4 million people, or 67 percent of Gaza’s population, remain in crisis-or-worse acute food insecurity. Ross Smith of the World Food Programme told the outlet the situation remained critical and required sustained aid access, funding and attention.