JERUSALEM
The Israeli army on Wednesday dropped leaflets on the cities of Gaza and Beit Lahia, ordering Palestinians to evacuate their homes ahead of intensified airstrikes.
"The leaflets ask the residents of Shujaya and Zaitoun neighborhoods to head central Gaza City and not to return to their homes until further notice," Avichay Adraee, a spokesman for the Israeli military, tweeted.
"The leaflets dropped on Beit Lahia warn whoever remains inside his house of putting their lives at risk because of intensified airstrikes," he added.
According to Palestinian official statistics, some 50,000 people live in the southern Gaza City neighborhood of Zaitoun while 100,000 reside in the eastern al-Shujaya neighborhood.
More than 75,000 Palestinians also live in the northern Gaza Strip city of Beit Lahia, according to the same statistics.
Thousands of Palestinians have already been forcibly displaced from their homes because of the ongoing Israeli military onslaught against the blockaded coastal enclave.
At least 205 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in unrelenting Israeli airstrikes on the blockaded Gaza Strip since July 7.
More than 1530 people have also been injured, many seriously, in the Israeli aerial attacks, which reportedly aim to stop rocket firing from Gaza.
Gaza-based resistance factions, for their part, have continued to fire hundreds of rockets into Israel, some of which have reached Tel Aviv, in response to the ongoing offensive.
One Israeli has been killed as a result of rocket firing from Gaza.
The ongoing military operation - dubbed "Operation Protective Edge" – is Israel's third wide-scale offensive against the blockaded Gaza Strip - home to some 1.8 million Palestinians - within the last six years.
www.aa.com.tr/en
