Israeli tank and drone strikes in Gaza on Wednesday killed at least 17 people, according to hospital staff and Associated Press journalists who counted the bodies.
In Khan Younis in the south, nine bodies, among them a woman and child, were rushed to Nasser Hospital. Meanwhile, the Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah received eight bodies.
The strikes in Deir al-Balah come as the Israeli military called for Palestinians in some parts of the central city to evacuate.
The UN humanitarian office has warned that mass evacuation orders by the Israeli military this month are pushing Palestinians into overcrowded and unsafe areas along the Gaza coast.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters that the latest orders issued Wednesday for part of Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis affect 115 sites with more than 150,000 displaced men, women and children, including UN and many informal and makeshift shelters.
The orders also impact offices, warehouses and residences of the United Nations and humanitarian organizations, and have made three water wells serving tens of thousands of people inaccessible, he said.
