JABALYA –  Israel’s military says it has encircled Jabalya, northern Gaza and launched a new ground operation, after seeing signs of Hamas rebuilding, despite nearly a year of fighting and strikes in the territory.

Despite attention shifting to Lebanon after Israeli forces escalated their attacks on the Hezbollah militant group, Israel continues to operate across Gaza and is again focusing on an area it previously said was rid of Hamas.

Elsewhere in Gaza, at least 25 people are confirmed dead after Israeli airstrikes hit a mosque and a school in the center of the territory, hospital officials say. Israel said Hamas was embedded in both buildings.

Israel carried out airstrikes overnight Saturday into Sunday in northern Gaza including against what the military said were “weapons storage facilities, underground infrastructure sites, terrorist cells, and additional military infrastructure sites.”

In a statement, the military said it had detected the presence of Hamas members there, as well as efforts by them “to rebuild its operational capabilities in the area,” and was moving forward with the operation to “dismantle.”

Hamas’s military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, said it was engaged in “fierce fights” with Israeli forces in northern Gaza.

Dozens of families in the area have packed up their belongings and fled once again after warnings from the Israeli military of the fresh ground operation in Jabalya, which is home to Gaza’s biggest refugee camp.

The Israeli military issued a fresh evacuation order for residents in northern Gaza, adding it had expanded the scope of the “humanitarian area” in Al-Mawasi.

“People left their homes this morning, and they don’t know where to go, carrying some simple belongings. There are no means of transportation”,  Abu Alaa Asaf, a resident of Beit Lahiya, told CNN.

“We heard the sounds of explosions all night long as if the war started today”,  Asaf said. Some residents of northern Gaza are refusing to move, saying there is no safe place left in the enclave.

Mohammad Ibrahim, 36, from Jabalya, told CNN: “I, along with my two sons, have stayed in Jabalya and will not go anywhere. There is no safe place in Gaza, and death is the same here or there.” (CNN)…[+]