Gaza civilians should move south where aid efforts 'will expand': Israel

JERUSALEM - The Israeli military on Sunday told civilians in Gaza to move to the south of the besieged territory, where it said humanitarian efforts "will be expanding".

"Civilians in northern Gaza and Gaza City should temporarily move south of Wadi Gaza to a safer area where they can receive water, food and medicine," IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in a statement recorded on Saturday.

"Tomorrow, the humanitarian efforts to Gaza, led by Egypt and the United States, will be expanding," he added.

Although the video was posted on X, formerly Twitter, early Sunday morning, another IDF spokesperson told AFP that the video had been recorded on Saturday, and confirmed the humanitarian efforts would be expanding on Sunday.

Israel unleashed a massive bombing campaign after Hamas gunmen stormed across the Gaza border on Oct 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and seizing 230 hostages, according to Israeli officials.

Since then, relentless Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed more than 8,000 people, half of them children, the Hamas-controlled health ministry in the territory said Saturday.

Despite increasingly frantic appeals for an end to the violence, Israel says it is intensifying its ground operations, while continuing to pummel Gaza from the sky.

Hamas authorities reported Sunday a "large number" of people killed overnight in strikes on two refugee camps in northern Gaza.

Israel's Home Front Command earlier warned residents in the southern cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon of incoming missile and rocket attacks. - AFP