The Israeli military pressed deeper into northern Gaza by ground on Friday after issuing a series of evacuation orders calling on Palestinians to flee, part of its escalating offensive against Hamas in the war-battered Gaza Strip.
The expansion of ground operations came after the Palestinian health authorities said on Thursday that dozens of people, including children, were killed in Israeli strikes on a school turned shelter in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City. On Friday, the Israeli military said the strikes were targeting well-known militants in a Hamas command and control center, without naming them.
The evacuation orders have brought renewed hardship to Palestinians who had already endured displacement from their homes and miserable conditions during the first 15 months of the war. A shaky two-month cease-fire between Israel and Hamas collapsed in March after the two sides failed to reach an agreement to extend it, ending a brief respite for Palestinians in Gaza.
The Israeli military has since embarked on a major bombing campaign and seized territory in Gaza in a tactic that Israeli officials have said was intended to compel Hamas to release more hostages.
As the Israeli military operation expanded, Hamas’s military wing on Friday appeared to threaten the remaining Israeli and foreign hostages held in Gaza. In a statement that did not mention the plight of its own people, Hamas said its fighters were holding some captives in the evacuation zones under “strict security measures that are extremely dangerous to their lives.”
The armed group has in the past threatened the well-being of hostages in the face of Israeli bombardments.
The military said its recent campaign had dismantled weapons infrastructure and killed militants, including Mohammed Awad, whom it described as a senior military commander in the Mujahedeen Brigades, a small armed group in Gaza.
The military said that Mr. Awad had taken part in Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, and was “likely personally involved in the abduction and brutal murders of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas,” though it did not explain how it had come to that conclusion. Mrs. Bibas and her two young children became symbols for many Israelis of their suffering on Oct. 7, when about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 abducted to Gaza.
Avichay Adraee, the military’s Arabic-language spokesman, said in a post late Thursday on social media that he was providing a “final” warning before a new attack, urging people to relocate southward. Mr. Adraee suggested that militant groups were operating among civilians.
