Rescuers say 17 dead in Gaza as Israel troops encircle Jabaliya

Gaza's civil defence agency said on Sunday that Israeli air strikes in Jabaliya killed at least 17 people as Israeli forces said they had surrounded the area to prevent Hamas from regrouping and killed dozens of militants.

Following a year of fighting after Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, large swathes of Gaza have been reduced to rubble as the Israeli army aimed to completely destroy the militant group.

But in recent months, troops have returned to several areas across the Palestinian territory where they had previously conducted operations against Hamas, only to find militants regrouping.

The Israeli military said Sunday its forces surrounded the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza in response to indications that Hamas was rebuilding despite nearly a year of strikes and fighting.

"The troops of the 401st Brigade and the 460th Brigade have successfully encircled the area and are currently continuing to operate in the area," the military said in a statement on Sunday.

It cited intelligence suggesting the "presence of terrorists and terror infrastructure in the area of Jabaliya... as well as efforts by Hamas to rebuild its operational capabilities in the area".

Israeli aircraft struck "dozens of military targets" in support of ground troops, it said.

Hamas-run Gaza's civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said multiple strikes rocked Jabaliya overnight.

"There are 17 martyrs, including nine children, in Israeli air strikes in Jabaliya," he said.

- Evacuation routes -

AFPTV footage showed several bodies in blood-stained white shrouds laid out on the ground and some being carried away on stretchers for burial.

The military said dozens of militants had been "eliminated" in the operation so far.

"Over the past day, the troops located numerous weapons in the area, including grenades, munitions, and explosive devices and engaged in several close-quarter encounters with terrorists," it added.

Residents said the Israeli military had targeted the area with heavy bombardment.

"The shelling is random and violent in multiple directions and we do not know where the shelling is coming from and we do not know where to go," Gaza resident Jameel al-Habibi told AFP.

Khaled al-Hawajri, a resident of northern Gaza, said the relentless air strikes reminded him of the "first days of the war".

"We couldn't leave the house. Anyone who tried to go out was targeted by the drones," Hawajri, 46, told AFP.

"Every now and then we are forced to evacuate the area, running without taking anything with us due to the intensity of the shelling."

"We are truly tired. This is the 10th time I have left my home... We don't know when or if we will ever return," Hawajri added.

Israeli forces have regularly targeted Jabaliya since the Gaza war began, displacing most residents.

The military said it was also expanding the humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi along the coastline in southern Gaza.

"For this purpose, two humanitarian evacuation routes from northern Gaza have been reopened: one along the Salaheddine road and the other along the Al-Rashid coastal road," the military said.

Gaza's civil defence agency meanwhile said an Israeli air strike on a mosque-turned-shelter on Sunday in central Deir al-Balah killed 26 people. Israel's military said it had targeted Hamas militants.

"The number of martyrs brought to hospitals as a result of the occupation's targeting of displaced people in the Ibn Rushd school and Al Aqsa Martyrs mosque reached 26, with several more wounded," a health ministry statement said.

Israel's military said it had "conducted a precise strike on Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control centre" at the mosque.

The war in Gaza broke out after Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, resulting in the deaths of 1,205 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,870 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory's health ministry and described as reliable by the UN.