Several dead as Israel attacks Shujayea, east of Gaza City, according to Gaza civil defense and a doctor.
Palestinians fled the Shujayea neighborhood of Gaza City after Israeli forces carried out airstrikes and sent ground vehicles into the devastated area, according to Gaza civil defense.
Muhammad Ghurab, a doctor at Gaza City’s al-Ahli Hospital, said on Thursday that the facility received seven “martyrs, including four children” and more than 40 others who were injured “as Israeli forces advanced east of the neighborhood.” of Shujayea.”
Civil defense teams removed several bodies from the rubble after the attacks, the civil defense said in a statement, adding that search and rescue operations were continuing.
Hamas said in a statement that the attack led to “a number of martyrs and forced thousands of Palestinians to flee under the pressure of continuous shelling against defenseless civilians.”
Hamas said the repeated attacks on “cities, countryside and districts, and the deliberate killing of civilians and destruction of infrastructure” were part of a “fascist policy” to increase the suffering of Palestinians.
The group said it would continue to “inflict heavy losses” on Israel’s army until “the aggression is stopped and expelled from our land.”
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said the majority of people in Gaza City’s Shujayea and Tuffa neighborhoods were displaced Palestinians.
“They found themselves in another dilemma, pressured to move west after the Israeli military issued strict evacuation orders, sending text messages and spreading leaflets,” said Mahmoud, adding that the orders arrived approximately 30 minutes after the start. of military operations in the country.
“People are being forced into internal displacement repeatedly. It is becoming part of their daily routine, a new normal,” said Mahmoud.
He said some families are unable to evacuate due to the “dense presence of quadcopters, surveillance drones and heavy artillery.”
Surprise attack
Residents said they were caught off guard by the sound of approaching and firing tanks in the early afternoon, with drones also attacking following the overnight bombing of the city, which Israel had bombed at the start of its assault on Gaza.
“It seemed like the war was starting again, a series of bombings that destroyed several houses in our area and shook the buildings,” Mohammad Jamal, 25, a resident of Gaza City, told the Reuters news agency.
Israeli forces also continued to shell the southern city of Rafah in what they say are the final stages of an operation against Hamas fighters there.
More than 1 million Palestinians had already sought shelter in the area until Israeli forces launched a ground attack last month, forcing most of those seeking shelter to flee once again.
The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 47 Palestinians were killed and many more injured in the last 24 hours of reporting.
More than eight months after Israel’s attack on Gaza, aid officials say the enclave remains at high risk of famine, with nearly half a million people facing “catastrophic” food insecurity.
“We are starving in Gaza City and being hunted by tanks and planes, with no hope that this war will end,” Jamal said.
International mediation supported by the US has failed to produce a ceasefire agreement, although talks continue in a context of intense Western pressure for Gaza to receive more aid. Israeli forces continue to block the entry of much-needed humanitarian aid, medical supplies and fuel after closing the borders when they seized the vital Rafah border crossing last month.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said 18 of its ambulance vehicles are no longer operational due to a lack of fuel. This represents 36% of the capacity of the People’s Republic of China’s ambulance fleet, the group said in a post on X.
“The PRCS calls on the international community for urgent intervention to reopen the Rafah border crossing and allow the flow of humanitarian aid, especially fuel, to prevent the total collapse of the healthcare system due to the cessation of hospital generators,” the group added.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
