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Israeli military strikes killed at least 40 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip as Israeli forces tightened their squeeze around Jabalia in the north of the enclave on Tuesday, amid fierce battles with Hamas-led fighters.
Palestinian health officials said at least 11 people were killed by Israeli fire near Al-Falouja in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza's eight historic refugee camps, while 10 others were killed in Bani Suhaila in eastern Khan Younis in the south when an Israeli missile struck a house.
Earlier on Tuesday, an Israeli air strike destroyed three houses in the Sabra suburb of Gaza City, and the local civil emergency service said they recovered two bodies from the site, while the search continued for 12 other people who were believed to have been in the houses at the time of the strike.
Five others were killed when a house was struck in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza.
'Cutting off North Gaza completely'
Jabalia has been the focus of an Israeli offensive for more than 10 days, with troops returning to areas of the north that came under heavy bombardment in the early months of the year-long war.
The operation has raised concerns among Palestinians and UN agencies that Israel wants to clear residents from the north of the crowded enclave, a charge it has denied.
Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 40 people on Tuesday. (Reuters: Hatem Khaled)
The United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday the Israeli military appeared to be "cutting off North Gaza completely from the rest of the Gaza Strip".
"Amid intense ongoing hostilities and evacuation orders in northern Gaza, families are facing unimaginable fear, loss of loved ones, confusion, and exhaustion," Adrian Zimmerman, a senior Red Crescent official for Gaza, said in a statement.
"People must be able to flee safely, without facing further danger.
"Many, including the sick and disabled, cannot leave, and they remain protected under international humanitarian law — all possible precautions must be taken to ensure they remain unharmed," he added.
"Every person displaced has the right to return home in safety."
The Israeli military has now encircled the Jabalia camp and sent tanks into nearby Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun towns, with the declared aim of stamping out Hamas fighters who are trying to regroup there.
The Israeli military has told residents to leave their homes and head to safety in southern Gaza.
Palestinian and UN officials say there is no place safe in Gaza.
Israeli officials said evacuation orders were aimed at separating Hamas fighters from civilians and denied that there was any systematic plan to clear civilians out of Jabalia or other northern areas.
More than 42,344 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023. (Reuters: Hatem Khaled)
Hamas's armed wing said fighters were engaged in fierce battles with Israeli forces in and around Jabalia.
Struggling hospitals overwhelmed
Mr Zimmerman also urged for health facilities in the north to be protected, saying hospitals there were struggling to provide medical services.
Gaza's health ministry said the army ordered the three hospitals operating there to evacuate but medical staffers said they were determined to continue their services even though they were overwhelmed by the growing number of casualties.
On Monday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the level of civilian casualties in northern Gaza.
The northern part of Gaza is home to well over half the territory's 2.3 million people and hundreds of thousands of residents were forced to flee their homes amidst heavy bombing in the first phase of Israel's assault on the territory.
Around 400,000 people remain, according to United Nations estimates.
Israel launched the offensive against Hamas after the militant group's October 7 terror attack on Israel in 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage to Gaza, by Israeli tallies.
More than 42,344 Palestinians have been killed and 99,013 wounded in the offensive so far, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health authorities.
One-quarter of Lebanon under evacuation orders
The UN refugee agency's Middle East director, Rema Jamous Imseis, said that new Israeli evacuation orders to 20 villages in southern Lebanon meant that over a quarter of the country was now affected.
"Now we have over 25 per cent of the country under a direct Israeli military evacuation order," she said.
"People are heeding these calls to evacuate, and they're fleeing with almost nothing."
The UN human rights office also said on Tuesday it had received reports that most of the 22 victims of an Israeli air strike on a building in northern Lebanon were women and children.
An Israeli air strike in the Christian-majority region of Aitou in north Lebanon killed 22 people on Monday, mostly women and children, local authorities said. (Reuters: Omar Ibrahim)
"What we are hearing is that amongst the 22 people killed were 12 women and two children," UN human rights office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence said regarding the strike on Aitou, in Lebanon's north, on Monday.
"We understand it was a four-story residential building that was struck. With these factors in mind, we have real concerns with respect to IHL [International Humanitarian Law], so the laws of war, and the principles of distinction proportion and proportionality," he said, calling for an investigation.
Reuters