18,000 Palestinians said to evacuate north Gaza’s Beit Lahiya in past day

5 December 2024, 7:53 pm 5 Edit

Some 18,000 Palestinian civilians have been evacuated from northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya in the past day, according to a report by Army Radio.

Before entering the town in the Strip’s far north last month, the IDF estimated that only a few thousand Palestinians were residing there.

During the evacuation of the population from several shelters in the combat zone, troops detained around 100 suspected terror operatives who were taken to Israel for questioning, the report says.

The military has previously denied it is seeking to forcibly displace Palestinians in Gaza, saying that “the IDF’s warnings to members of the civilian population to temporarily distance themselves from areas expected to be exposed to intense warfare are made in accordance with the obligation under international law to take feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm by providing advance warnings prior to attacks. The IDF only operates in areas in which there is known to be a militant presence, and is still at this time working to dismantle Hamas’s military infrastructure in various areas throughout the Gaza Strip.”

Troops killed some 20 terror operatives during fighting in Beit Lahiya in the past day, Army Radio says, a relatively low figure compared to recent weeks, as combat in the area has become less intense.

The IDF launched an offensive against Hamas in the Strip’s far northern towns of Jabalia, Beit Lahiya, and Beit Hanoun in early October. So far, the military estimates that it has killed at least 1,750 terror operatives.

Another 1,300 have been detained, and around 90,000 civilians have been evacuated from the area.

Thirty-one IDF soldiers have been killed so far in the operation.