Middle East latest: Israel orders more evacuations and Palestinians stage rare anti-Hamas protests

The Israeli military on Wednesday ordered the evacuation of parts of Gaza City as it steps up its renewed offensive against Hamas after breaking the ceasefire last week. Israel’s bombardments and ground operations have caused vast destruction and at their height displaced some 90% of Gaza’s population.

Thousands of Palestinians marched in heavily destroyed northern Gaza on Wednesday in the second day of anti-war protests. It’s a rare display of public anger against Hamas, although the protests appeared generally aimed against the war in Gaza and their insufferable living conditions.

Israel has cut off all food, fuel, medicine and other supplies to war-torn Gaza’s roughly 2 million people since the beginning of the month — a strategy that rights groups say is a war crime.

Israel has vowed to increase military pressure until Hamas returns the remaining 59 hostages — 24 of whom are believed to be alive. Israel also demands Hamas disarm and send its leaders into exile. Hamas says it won’t release the remaining hostages without a lasting ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Here’s the latest:

Tens of thousands of Israelis flocked to Jerusalem on Wednesday to protest a bill that would change the way judges are selected. It’s the latest in a series of anti-government demonstrations that have rocked the country in recent weeks.

The proposed bill is up for a final vote overnight and is expected to pass. Critics say the changes would dangerously politicize the process of judicial appointments.

An earlier version of the bill was a cornerstone of the sweeping overhaul of the judiciary launched by Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government in early 2023. That process touched off months of mass protests that only ground to a halt after the Oct. 7 attack triggered the war in Gaza.

Israelis have taken to the streets for several days to protest the government’s failure to secure a deal to free hostages held in Gaza and its recent moves to fire top legal and security officials, which many view as further steps that threaten the balance of powers in Israel.

The rocket crossed from the northern Gaza Strip into southern Israel, according to the military. It said the interception is under review.

Although Palestinian militants were once firing volleys of rockets each day out of Gaza, that dwindled to nearly zero over the course of the 17-month war.

Since Israel broke the ceasefire last week, a handful of rockets have been fired from Gaza as well as long-range missiles from Yemen. No one in Israel has been hurt.

At least nine Palestinians were killed Wednesday in two separate Israeli airstrikes in central Gaza, medics said.

One strike hit a group of Palestinians gathered outside a charity providing hot meals in the Nuseirat refugee camp. At least five people, including a woman and her adult daughter, were killed in the strike, according to the Awda hospital, which received the casualties.

A separate strike on a tent killed a father, mother and their daughter in the town of Zwaeida, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah. The hospital said the explosion tore the man’s body in half.