Israel orders further evacuations in Gaza after militants fire rockets

The Israeli military has again ordered the evacuation of several residential areas in the northwest of the Gaza Strip, where Palestinian militants are said to have fired rockets at the nearby Israeli city of Ashkelon.

The orders issued on Monday came after a rocket attack in Ashkelon the previous day set off air raid sirens. The military said it intercepted one projectile and another fell into the sea.

Israel ordered the evacuation of the entire northern Gaza Strip, including the territory's largest city, in the first weeks of the war, which was sparked by the Hamas attack on October 7.

Most residents followed orders and moved south, but up to 300,000 remained in the north, where Israel's air and ground operations have caused widespread destruction. The north has been surrounded by Israeli forces since October and largely isolated.

About 90 percent of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have been displaced, often multiple times, in the 11-month war. Hundreds of thousands of people are crowded into tent camps along the coast, where there are few or no public services.

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Death toll from Israeli attacks on Syria rises to 14, according to Syrian state media

DAMASCUS – The number of people killed in overnight Israeli strikes in Syria has risen to 14 and more than 40 injured, Syrian state media reported Monday morning.

The Syrian state news agency SANA reported that Israeli strikes hit several areas in central Syria late Sunday, damaging a highway in Hama province and causing fires. Masyaf National Hospital in the western Hamas province initially reported four deaths.

On Monday morning, SANA reported 14 dead and 43 injured, citing hospital director Faysal Haydar. It is unclear how many of the dead and injured were civilians and how many were militants.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, reported that one of the attacks targeted a scientific research center in Maysaf and other sites where “Iranian militias and experts are based to develop weapons in Syria.” Local media also reported attacks around the coastal city of Tartous.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets in government-controlled parts of war-torn Syria in recent years, but it rarely acknowledges or discusses these operations. The attacks are often directed against Syrian forces or Iranian-backed groups. Israel has vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment in Syria.