Heavy fighting is going on between Israel and Hamas near the city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza

Israeli soldiers and militants from the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas are fighting at the gate this Saturday Deir al-Balah, the main city in the center of the Gaza Strip that has so far escaped ground attack Israel And where evacuation orders were issued today.

“The Seventh Brigade is operating on the outskirts of Deir al-Balah. Soldiers They destroyed the terrorist infrastructure And so far they have killed dozens of terrorists,” said an Israeli military statement about its operation on Saturday afternoon.

The army confirmed it shortly afterwards Three soldiers died In these battles in the centre of the Strip, First Sergeants Danil Pechenyuk, 26, and Nitai Metodi, 23, and Senior Sergeant Yaniv Itzhak, 35, were killed, bringing the number of casualties in the Israeli ranks to 340 since the start of the war in the Palestinian enclave.

Troops also established and destroyed positions between Deir al Balah and Khan Younis – where some of the most intense fighting took place over the past week -, An underground tunnel about 500 metres long used by Islamic JihadMilitary note added.

In the area around Deir al-Balah, Israeli forces also said they had A military base was located, where they found weapons, military jackets and grenades, as well as rocket launchers ready to fire.

Israel gave this order on Saturday New evacuations in the central Gaza Strip, including the eastern part of the city of Deir al Balah and the Maghazi refugee camp, Where its troops are going to conduct a ground invasion, leaving a minimal humanitarian zone for the civilian population, which occupies less than 9.5% of Gazan territory.

For its part, Hamas’ armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, reported that its fighters were confronting Israeli forces in the area. Ja’farawi, east of Deir al-Balah, To prevent his troops from entering the city.

“The Al Qassam Mujahideen managed to trap a Zionist engineering unit force in a booby-trapped tunnel east of Deir al Balah city. When they arrived inside the tunnel, an explosion occurred and their soldiers were killed and injured,” he said.

Before suffering multiple aerial bombardments this morning and the proximity of the Israeli ground assault, Deir al Balah was a relatively safe area, housing one of the few operational hospitals in the Strip, the Martyrs of Al Aqsa, and was the focus of a large part of the “humanitarian zone”

With the new evacuation orders, the humanitarian zone now occupies 36% of Gazan territory when the war began, down to less than 9.5%, according to the Gaza Civil Defense.

According to the Deir al-Balah Municipality, around 100,000 Palestinians have been displaced from the eastern part of the city due to intense and persistent Israeli airstrikes over the past two days. 90% of Gazan’s population, more than 2 million, is displaced.

(With information from EFE)