Israel steps up strikes across Gaza, orders new evacuations in north

Israeli soldiers fire mortars from southern Israel towards the Gaza Strip, from a position near the Israel-Gaza border on Wednesday, April 17, 2024. 

Israeli strikes intensified across Gaza on Tuesday in some of the heaviest shelling in weeks, residents said, and the army ordered fresh evacuations in the north of the enclave, warning civilians they were in a "dangerous combat zone".

Strikes by air and shelling from tanks on the ground were also reported in central and southern areas of the Gaza Strip in what residents said late on Tuesday were almost 24 hours of non-stop bombardments.