Heavy Israeli bombardment in northern Gaza as UN peacekeeper hit in Lebanon

Palestinians in northern Gaza described heavy Israeli bombardment Saturday in the hours after airstrikes killed at least 22 people, as Israel continued to tell people there and in southern Lebanon to get out of the way of its offensives against the Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups.

In Lebanon, the United Nations peacekeeping force said its headquarters in Naqoura had again been hit, with a peacekeeper struck by gunfire late Friday and in stable condition.

It wasn’t clear who fired. The shooting occurred a day after Israel’s military fired on the headquarters for the second straight day.

Israel, which has warned the peacekeepers to leave their positions, didn’t immediately respond to questions.

Naquora is in southern Lebanon, which has been the epicentre of Israel's recent escalating campaign against Hezbollah, which has involved waves of heavy airstrikes across the country.

Meanwhile in northern Gaza 22 people were killed by Israeli bombardment on the city of Jabalya, according to emergency responders on Saturday, as Israel’s military ordered more residents of northern Gaza to move south.

The warnings come ahead of planned military operations on Saturday, Israel's military said, describing the area as a “dangerous combat zone”.

Those people join tens of thousands of other Palestinians who were told to leave in a round of evacuation orders issued on Monday.

The army will operate “with great force” in the areas of Jabalya and Nazla, north of Gaza City, and will continue to do so “for an extended period”, according to the military’s Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee.

“You must evacuate the area immediately,” he said, adding that the area, including the shelters within it, was considered a “dangerous combat zone.” He told residents that they should move south to the military’s so-called “humanitarian zone.”

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That zone, in the coastal area of Al Mawasi, is already crammed with refugees and has been hit by repeated Israeli airstrikes including one that killed at least 19 people in September.

The military dropped flyers on Saturday morning warning people to “evacuate immediately,” according to residents.

On Friday, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said thousands of people already cannot leave northern Gaza despite evacuation orders from the military, due to gunfire and strikes around evacuation routes.

Palestinians fleeing the designated areas covered by Monday’s order in northern Gaza were shot at as they attempted to leave, according to residents there and footage shared with CNN.

In July the UN reported that approximately nine out of ten people in Gaza had been internally displaced, many of them multiple times, due to repeated evacuation orders across the territory.

Aid organisations have previously said new rounds of evacuation orders make the delivery of emergency rations even more difficult.

Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and Hamas' ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not say how many were fighters but say women and children make up more than half of the fatalities.

The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times. It's been a full year since Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed into army bases and farming communities, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250.

They are still holding about 100 captives inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

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