The Israeli military issued displacement orders for several areas in Gaza before launching a heavy bombardment, killing at least two people, according to medical sources. The strikes on Thursday mark the latest escalation despite a US-brokered ceasefire last year.

Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili reported from Gaza City that the military warned residents of four different areas to evacuate, then attacked those same zones. “What is particularly alarming is that these warnings have been followed by attacks on the very areas where people have been told to flee,” he said.

Airstrikes destroyed homes in the Bureij and Jabalia refugee camps, as well as the Zeitoun and Tal al-Hawa neighborhoods. A separate strike on a building in Zeitoun injured several people. Civil Defence crews struggled to extinguish a large fire sparked by the bombing.

The attacks come as the US plan for Gaza, which includes deploying an international security force and reconstruction, stalls. Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty urged US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to accelerate the deployment of the International Stabilization Force (ISF). Israeli media reported that 30 Moroccan officers had visited Gaza in preparation.

The humanitarian crisis persists: UN agencies estimate 1.4 million people (67% of Gaza’s population) face crisis-level food insecurity. Ross Smith of the World Food Programme said, “Things are not fine in Gaza. It is still a critical, desperate humanitarian situation.”

The UK Foreign Office demanded Israel end restrictions on humanitarian aid, stating that “averting famine cannot be the benchmark for success” and that restrictions are “driving disease, water scarcity and decimating health services.”

Source: www.aljazeera.com