[Source: Reuters]

Israeli forces carried out new raids in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to address the U.S. Congress.

The latest Israeli attacks destroyed homes in towns east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza and thousands of people were forced to head west to seek shelter, residents said.

The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said it had received distress calls from residents trapped in their homes in Bani Suhaila, east of Khan Younis, but were unable to reach the town.

Medics later said two Palestinians had been killed in an airstrike on Bani Suhaila, where the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas said fighters had detonated a bomb against an Israeli army personnel carrier.

The Israeli military, which is trying to eradicate Hamas after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, said it had been operating in areas from which fighters had been able to fire rockets into Israel and attack Israeli troops.

Gaza health officials said Israeli military strikes in the past 24 hours had killed at least 55 people, the latest casualties in a war that health authorities in the enclave say has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians.

Residents said they had been ordered to head west towards a designated humanitarian area but that the area was now unsafe. The Israeli military issued the evacuation orders on social media, and some residents received orders to leave by phone.

Israeli forces also mounted airstrikes on several areas of central and northern Gaza, including one on Al-Bureij camp in central Gaza which health officials said killed nine people.

In the southern area of Rafah, the military said it engaged in close-quarter combat with militants.

One soldier was seriously hurt during combat on Wednesday, said the military, which has so far lost 326 troops in Gaza.

The Palestinian Health Ministry does not distinguish between combatant and non-combatants in its fatality reports but local health officials say most of the Palestinians killed have been civilians. Israel says at least a third are fighters.