Israeli bombardment of north Gaza sector

The Israeli army bombarded areas of north Gaza after the end of a grace period set for the people in that area to evacuate it, in the course of Israel's desire for a supposed safety buffer zone had announced it wants to impose in the area for its protection.

For his part, the chairman of the Palestinian authority Mahmoud Abbas condemned the forced establishment of the buffer zone north of Gaza saying that "Israel went out of Gaza, and has no right to return back to it, and has also no right to maintain any pretext for that." Abbas repeated his demands for the Palestinian groups to shoulder their responsibility and not to give Israel pretexts for the return back of the occupation.

In another development, the Palestinian security forces are exerting intensive efforts in Gaza in search for three Britons. They are one British woman activist and her two sons who were kidnapped near the border crossing in Rafah to the south of Gaza. So far no side claimed responsibility for the operation.