Gaza Residents Flee Amid Intensified Airstrikes

Displaced Palestinians in Gaza were once again told to evacuate their homes in the eastern neighborhoods of Khan Younis and instructed to head to the west of the city.

Many spent the night sleeping on roadsides with nowhere safe to go.

Israeli forces stepped up airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, killing at least 40 people, Palestinian medics said, in further battle with Hamas-led militants as Israel braced for potential wider war in the region.

Israeli aircraft also bombed a house in the heart of Gaza City in the north, killing five Palestinians, while another airstrike in the southern city of Khan Younis killed one person and wounded others, according to medics.

As war rages through the Gaza strip, a designated camp for displaced people shelters Palestinians with disabilities in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza.

Called 'Smile of hope camp' and managed by the Palestinian Red Crescent, the camp was built in July and it is the first trying to provide care and facilities for displaced people in need of special assistance.

Like other centers in the Palestinian enclave, the center faces lack of funding and supplies and it is able to provide only facilities like accessible toilets and medical check-ups, covering only small basic needs, Noha Al Sharif, a camp supervisor said, adding that the war has left a greater number of people with permanent disabilities, increasing the need for specialized structures and care.

Displaced Palestinians in the camp also stressed the need for adequate structures for people with disabilities.

Hamas-led militants set off the Gaza war on Oct. 7 last year with a shock, cross-border rampage into Israeli communities, killing 1,200 Israelis and foreigners and seizing some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, at least 39,699 Palestinians have been killed, including 22 within the past 24 hours, and 91,722 injured in Israel's devastating air and ground war in Gaza, the Gaza health ministry said in an update.