section_path: War in Israel and Gaza/Resumption of hostilities (December 2023 – January 2024)
section_name: Resumption of hostilities (December 2023 – January 2024)
paragraph_text: Resumption of hostilities (December 2023 – January 2024)
  
  Israel adopted a grid system to order precise evacuations within Gaza. It was criticized as inaccessible, due to the lack of electricity and internet connectivity in Gaza, and confusing. Some evacuation instructions were vague or contradictory, and Israel sometimes struck areas it had told people to evacuate to. Law experts called these warnings ineffective. Amnesty International found no evidence of Hamas targets at the sites of some strikes, and requested that they be investigated as possible war crimes. On 6 December, Refaat Alareer, a prominent professor and writer in Gaza, was killed by an Israeli airstrike. His poem " If I Must Die " was widely circulated after his death.
  
  By December, IDF troops had reached the centers of Khan Yunis, Jabalia, and Shuja'iyya. Intensified bombing pushed Palestinian civilians south to Rafah. Between 7 and 10 December, Israel detained more than 150 men; according to Israel, they surrendered en masse, but this account was disputed by several publications. On 15 December, the IDF killed three Israeli hostages in a friendly fire incident, after mistakenly identifying them as enemies. The same day, Pope Francis condemned the killing of two women sheltering at a convent as "terrorism."
  
  On 1 January 2024, Israel withdrew from neighborhoods in North Gaza. On 15 January, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the most intense fighting in the north of the Gaza Strip had ended, and a new phase of low-intensity fighting was about to begin. By 18 January, the IDF, who had previously stated that Hamas control over North Gaza was "dismantled", reported that Hamas had significantly rebuilt its fighting strength in North Gaza.
  
  On 22 January, 24 IDF soldiers died in the deadliest day for the IDF since the invasion began. Of these, 21 died when Palestinian militants fired an RPG at a tank, causing adjacent buildings to collapse. On 29 January, Israeli forces killed Hind Rajab, a five-year-old girl, and six of her family members when the car they were driving was struck by Israeli tank and machine gun fire; two rescue workers who attempted to retrieve Rajab were also killed. The Red Crescent released the audio from Rajab's phone call with rescue workers, causing international outrage over her death.