Middle East crisis live: IDF orders evacuation in Gaza City eastern suburb

Key events

Show key events only

Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature

Israel’s military said around 160 projectiles had been fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon into northern and central Israel Sunday, some of which were intercepted.

“As of 15:00 (1300 GMT), approximately 160 projectiles that were fired by the Hezbollah terrorist organisation have crossed from Lebanon into Israel today,” the army said.

Medical agencies reported that several people had been injured, including a man in a “moderate to serious” condition. We have not been able to independently verify this information yet.

Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson, has said that eight rockets were fired towards Israel from Lebanon, adding that most of them were successfully intercepted.

It comes as Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, said its fighters launched a drone attack on the Ashdod naval base in southern Israel for the first time.

Death toll from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza reaches 44,211, says health ministry

At least 44,211 Palestinian people have been killed and 104,567, injured in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

Of those, 35 Palestinians were killed and 94 injured in the latest 24-hour reporting period, the ministry said.

Gaza’s health ministry has said in the past that thousands of other dead people are most likely lost in the rubble of the territory..

Reports of Israeli military dropping bombs on northern Gaza's Kamal Adwan hospital

Meanwhile in north Gaza, health officials said an Israeli drone dropped bombs on Kamal Adwan hospital, injuring its director Hussam Abu Safiya.

“This will not stop us from completing our humanitarian mission and we will continue to do this job at any cost,” Abu Safiya said in a video statement circulated by the health ministry on Sunday.

“We are being targeted daily. They targeted me a while ago but this will not deter us …,” he said from his hospital bed.

Israeli forces say armed militants use civilian buildings including housing blocks, hospitals and schools for operational cover. Hamas denies this, accusing Israeli forces of indiscriminately targeting populated areas.

Smoke rises from North Gaza, as seen from Ashkelon, Israel. Photograph: Amir Cohen/Reuters

A renewed Israeli assault was launched on the northern part of the Gaza Strip last month, with the Israeli military claiming it was to stop Hamas fighters regrouping there. The blockage of aid and food deliveries and the targeting of civilian infrastructure, however, have led to accusations that Israel is committing the war crime of seeking to forcibly displace the remaining population. The entirety of northern Gaza has been under Israeli evacuation orders but it is unclear how many people remain.

IDF orders evacuation orders to residents of Gaza City suburb

The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders to residents in areas of an eastern Gaza City suburb, setting off a new wave of displacement on Sunday, and a Gaza hospital director was injured in an Israeli drone attack, Palestinian medics said.

The new orders for the Shejaiya suburb posted by the Israeli army spokesperson on X on Saturday night were blamed on Palestinian militants firing rockets from that heavily built-up district in the north of the Gaza Strip.

“For your safety, you must evacuate immediately to the south,” the military’s post said. The rocket volley on Saturday was claimed by Hamas’ armed wing, which said it had targeted an Israeli army base over the border.

Footage circulated on social and Palestinian media showed residents leaving Shejaia on donkey carts and rickshaws, with others, including children carrying backpacks, walking.

Families living in the targeted areas began fleeing their homes after nightfall on Saturday and into Sunday’s early hours, residents and Palestinian media said – the latest in multiple waves of displacement since the war began 13 months ago.