[Source: Reuters]

Israeli forces bombarded several areas of the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday and thousands of Palestinians fled their homes in what could be part of a final push of Israel’s intensive military operations in nine months of war.

Eight Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded, health officials said. Israel’s military said that two soldiers had been killed in battle a day earlier.

Israel’s leaders have said they were winding down the phase of intense fighting against Hamas, the Islamist group that has governed Gaza since 2007, and would soon shift to more targeted operations.

Later on Tuesday, 17 Palestinians were killed in Israeli tank shelling of a street in the densely populated Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City in the north of the Strip, medics said. Footage on some Palestinian social media that Reuters was not immediately able to verify showed the scene at a local market, with bread scattered on a floor stained with blood.

The Israeli army ordered residents of several towns and villages in eastern Khan Younis to evacuate their homes on Monday, prior to tanks re-entering the area the military had left several weeks ago.

Thousands who had not heeded the call were forced to flee their homes in the dark overnight, as Israeli tanks and planes bombed Karara, Abassan and other areas that had been named in the evacuation orders, residents and Hamas media said.

The Israeli military said its forces had struck areas in Khan Younis from where around 20 rockets had been fired on Monday. Targets included weapon storage facilities and operational centres, it added.

It said measures were taken before the strikes to enable civilians to evacuate the area. The military has accused Hamas of using civilian infrastructure and the wider population as human shields. The Islamist group denies that.

Islamic Jihad, an allied group of Hamas, said it was responsible for firing the rockets.