GAZA CITY, Palestine

Paramedics were injured on Sunday when ambulances came under fire in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, the Palestinian Civil Defense Agency said.

The agency said Israeli forces besieged several ambulances as paramedics responded to casualties after Israeli airstrikes in the Al-Hashashin area in Rafah.

It said several paramedics were injured, without specifying their number.

The agency said it also lost contact with one of its rescue teams as they attempted to reach out to ambulances targeted by Israeli forces in Rafah.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army issued an evacuation order for Palestinians in the Tel al-Sultan area of western Rafah.

Military spokesman Avichay Adraee said army forces launched an operation in the area, ordering Palestinian residents to relocate to al-Mawasi along Gaza’s coast, calling Tel al-Sultan a “dangerous combat zone.”

More than 700 Palestinians have been killed and over 1,000 injured in a surprise aerial campaign by Israel on Gaza since Tuesday, shattering a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement that took hold in January.

Nearly 50,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and more than 113,000 injured in a brutal Israeli military onslaught on Gaza since October 2023.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.