Israeli troops expand 'security zone' in northern Gaza, take control of more territory

Israeli troops moved into an area of northern Gaza, taking control of more territory around the edge of the enclave, the military said on Friday, days after the government announced plans to seize large areas with an operation in the south.

Soldiers carrying out the operation in Shuja'iyya, a suburb east of Gaza City in the north, were letting civilians out via organized routes, as troops moved in to expand the area defined by Israel as a "security zone" in Gaza, a statement said.

Images circulating on social media showed an Israeli tank on Al Muntar hill in Shuja'iyya in a position that gave it clear sight over Gaza City and beyond to the shoreline. Shelling on the eastern side of Gaza was non-stop, a local health official said in a text message.

As the Israeli forces moved in, hundreds of residents had already left a day earlier, carrying belongings or loading them on to vans or donkey carts, after the military issued the latest in a series of evacuation warnings that now cover around a third of the Gaza Strip, according to the United Nations.

Israel resumed its operation in Gaza with a heavy series of air strikes on March 18 and sent troops back in after a two-month pause, during which 38 hostages were returned in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

Efforts at restarting negotiations, brokered by Egypt and Qatar, have stalled. "There are currently no contacts," a Palestinian official close to the mediation effort told Reuters.

Over the past two weeks, more than 280,000 people have been displaced in Gaza, according to the United Nations Humanitarian Agency OCHA, adding to the misery of families that have already been displaced multiple times over the past 18 months.

"I swear to God that I am staying in the street, there is no shelter here," said 40-year-old Hemam Al-Rifi, who said members of his family were killed when the Gaza City school complex they were sheltering in was hit by a deadly strike on Thursday.

"My house was destroyed at first, and I stayed in a tent in a school, not a classroom, and now I don't know where to go."

In Gaza City, local people said Israeli strikes had hit a water desalination plant located east of the Tuffah neighbourhood, that was vital to providing clean drinking water. Aid supplies have been cut off for weeks.

On the southern edge of Gaza, Israeli troops have been consolidating around the ruins of the city of Rafah, and OCHA says 65 per cent of the enclave is now within "no-go" areas, under active displacement orders or both.

Israel has not fully explained its long-term aim for the areas it is now seizing as a security zone, extending an existing buffer area along the edge of the enclave hundreds of metres into the Gaza Strip.

Gaza residents say they believe the aim is to permanently depopulate swaths of land, including some of Gaza's last farmland and water infrastructure.

Officials say the operations are in line with plans of U.S. President Donald Trump, who said in February he wanted to move the Gaza population into neighbouring countries and turn the enclave into a waterfront resort under U.S. control.