At least 16 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded today following renewed Israeli shelling in several areas of the Gaza Strip, where the army intensified its ground operations, especially in the north.

Medical sources reported that nine members of a family were killed after a house in the Shujaiya neighbourhood of northern Gaza City was hit.

Three others were killed in a similar incident in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the centre of the coastal enclave and four more in the neighbouring Bureij refugee camp.

As part of its operations in the north of the territory, the army yesterday ordered the forced evacuation of Kamal Adwan hospital within 24 hours, prompting international protests.

Regional television stations showed images of heavy Israeli artillery and armoured vehicle fire in the vicinity of the medical centre.

According to various sources, the military destroyed the only remaining bakery in northern Gaza in the Jabalia refugee camp the previous day.

There are reports of numerous dead bodies in the streets of Jabalia, but it is impossible to collect them because of the refusal of the armed forces to allow rescue workers and the Red Crescent Society to enter.

Last night the Gazan Civil Defence denounced the Israeli siege against the northern region and the massive attacks carried out since last week, especially against Jabalia and the Gaza towns of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanon.

Last month, the Kan Broadcasting Corporation revealed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was considering a plan to forcibly displace the Palestinian population from the north of the Strip.

According to the source, during a closed-door meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee in the Knesset (parliament), Netanyahu said the plan was very logical.

It is one of the initiatives we are considering, but there are many others to dismantle the civilian control of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), the right-wing politician said.

The draft is known as the General’s Plan because it was drawn up by retired senior army officers, including Giora Eiland, former head of the National Security Council.

Many Israeli ministers and members of the Knesset have in recent months publicly supported the re-establishment of settlements in the coastal enclave, which is opposed by the UN and the international community.

The Haaretz newspaper revealed in August that Netanyahu plans to keep the army in the Strip after the end of the conflict and begin Jewish settlement in the north.

«The occupation (of Gaza) is the goal Netanyahu is fighting for, even at the cost of the death of the remaining (Israeli) hostages and at the risk of a regional war,» Aluf Benn, the paper’s editor-in-chief, said in an article.