Israeli airstrike in Gaza
Israeli airstrike in GazaReuters

The IDF has warned residents of northern Gaza to evacuate their homes, Al Arabiya reported on Tuesday night.

According to the report, the warning was given to residents of the Sajaiya and Zeitoun neighborhoods.

The IDF traditionally warns innocent civilians ahead of an airstrike so that they are unharmed.

Earlier this week, the IDF dropped leaflets above northern Gaza and sent cell-phone messages to locals.

The messages warned civilians to move away from Hamas terrorists and command centers, which pose a grave risk to their safety. Hamas urged Palestinian Arabs to ignore these warnings.

During the current escalation, Hamas has openly boasted about the "success" of its strategy of using civilians as human shields, and the IDF has published extensive evidence of the practice.

Meanwhile, AFP reported that three people were killed in two Israeli air strikes on Gaza on Tuesday night.

One strike killed two men in a car in southern Rafiah, and a second in central Johr al-Deeq killed one man, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told the news agency.