Israel orders evacuations as air strikes hit Gaza City: Live updates
Israel ordered residents of a part of eastern Gaza City to evacuate on Thursday as officials and Palestinians reported heavy attacks and multiple casualties. Residents in the area described frantic efforts to escape as explosions rang out around them.
The Israeli military said it could not immediately comment on the attacks, which Palestinian officials said had taken place. Shajaiye neighborhoodan area that was heavily devastated and was the focus of intense fighting early in the war. Kan, Israel’s public broadcaster, reported that the army was conducting a ground operation to destroy Hamas based on intelligence that the armed group had begun to regain control of the neighborhood. .
A human rights witness said there were Israeli tanks on the outskirts of the neighborhood.
The operation, if confirmed, would be the latest instance of Israeli forces return to some areas of Gaza that they had left before, especially in the north of the enclave, as Hamas regrouped amid the chaos the nine-month war had caused. The war has dragged on even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks The war will soon move into a less tense phase.and as frustration grows in Israel and globally over what critics say is Netanyahu’s failure to advance a post-Hamas management plan for Gaza.
Gazan health authorities said Thursday that 15 people were killed and dozens wounded in Shajaiye. Civil Defense, the Palestinian emergency service, said five homes were hit in Shajaiye and another neighborhood, and a search was underway for the missing. The death toll could not be independently verified, and Gazan authorities do not distinguish between civilians and militants when reporting casualty figures.
Eyewitness Mohammed Qraiqea, a researcher with human rights advocacy group Euro-Med who was in Shajaiye on Thursday, said shelling, occasional airstrikes and fire from drones continued into afternoon.
“So far, the tanks have entered the outskirts of the neighborhood in a limited way,” he said on Thursday afternoon. “But by now most people have evacuated,” due to the heavy shelling, he added.
The Israeli army invaded northern Gaza in October following a Hamas-led offensive in Israel, seizing territory and pushing south as it took Hamas strongholds, but they have yet to defeat the armed group. decisively. Shajaiye, one of Gaza City’s largest neighborhoods, is home to a battalion considered the strongest in Hamas’s military wing. It’s unclear how big the Hamas presence is there.
Hamas has used urban areas in Gaza to provide an extra layer of protection for its fighters and weapons infrastructure, running tunnels under residential areas, launching rockets near homes and taking hostages in the city center. Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas official, said that the group was trying to keep Palestinian civilians from harm.
Shajaiye is where fierce fighting took place earlier in the war. In December, nine Israeli soldiers were killed there on what the Israeli military said was one of the deadliest days of the war for its forces.
In recent months, some residents have returned to Shajaiye as Israeli forces shifted their focus to southern Gaza. Mohammad al-Bahrawi, 65, who returned home with his family to Shajaiye in March, was forced to flee again on Thursday due to airstrikes. He said he saw the crowd leaving “like a flood”.
“I can’t even believe there are still so many people in Shajaiye,” he added.
Mr al-Bahrawi said he was unaware of the Israeli evacuation order, which the military posted on social media on Thursday.
“We escaped by the mercy of God,” he said, adding that “we heard explosions from all directions.”
When the explosion seemed to subside, Mr. al-Bahrawi walked with his wife and children to the courtyard of Ahli Arab Hospital, witnessing the wounded being pulled from the rubble along the way.
At the hospital, they “just sat there until God helped us find an apartment to live in,” he said.
Myra Noveck Contributed reporting from Jerusalem.
