Much of the area around the northern towns of Beit Hanoun, Jabalia and Beit Lahiya has been cleared of people and razed, fuelling speculation that Israel intends to keep the area as a closed buffer zone after the fighting in Gaza ends.

The residents of Beit Hanoun, a town in the northern Gaza Strip, are living under the brutal Israeli bombardment from land and air, the most intense in two months, according to locals from the farthest northern area of Gaza.

Israeli forces conducting a prolonged offensive in northern Gaza ordered the remaining residents of Beit Hanoun to evacuate Sunday, according to

Israel says it is targeting Hamas fighters and preventing them from regrouping, and wants civilians out of harm’s way.

Israeli forces carrying out a weeks-long offensive in northern Gaza ordered any residents remaining in Beit Hanoun to leave the town, citing Palestinian militant rocket fire from the area, residents said.

The Israel Defense Forces continues its intense airstrike and ground campaigns in Gaza. Tensions remain high between Israel and Iran after tit-for-tat long-range strikes in recent months and threats of further military action from both sides.

In the morning hours of Dec. 27, Israeli army forces stormed the Kamal Adwan Hospital compound in Beit Lahiya, culminating a nearly week-long siege of the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza. Soldiers forcibly moved patients out of Kamal Adwan to the Indonesian Hospital further south in the city,