The Israeli military has ordered all Palestinians to leave Gaza City and head south, while it advances a new offensive in the north, south and center of the Gaza Strip, which has killed dozens of people in the last 48 hours.
Leaflets airdropped on Wednesday urged “everyone in Gaza City” to leave and follow “safe routes” south toward Deir el-Balah and az-Zawayda.
The Gaza Interior Ministry has called on Gaza City residents to refrain from following Israeli evacuation orders, saying the instructions are part of the Israeli army’s psychological warfare against Palestinians.
The United Nations said the latest evacuations “will only fuel mass suffering for Palestinian families, many of whom have been displaced many times.”
“Civilians must be protected,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
Reporting from Deir-el Balah, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said Palestinians in Gaza City – where Israeli attacks have intensified – felt trapped and did not know where to go.
“Let me also remind you that there are no civil defense teams and there is no Red Cross. There is no one to evacuate these Palestinians,” she said.
Israel issued the first formal order to evacuate part of the city on June 27, and two more in the following days.
The government says it is pursuing Hamas fighters who are regrouping in various parts of Gaza nine months after the war began. The new ground attack began in the Shujayea neighborhood in the city’s east, but this week tanks also moved into the central and western districts, forcing tens of thousands of civilians to flee south.
Israel intensifies attacks on Gaza
The latest evacuation order comes a day after an Israeli airstrike on al-Awdah school, which killed at least 30 people and injured 53 others, most of them women and children, according to Palestinian doctors.
Exclusive footage from the school, obtained by Al Jazeera, shows young Palestinians playing football outside the school as dozens of people watch. Then a loud explosion is heard, sending people running for cover.
A Palestinian boy told Al Jazeera he lost several relatives in the attack. “We were sitting and a missile fell and destroyed everything,” he said, sobbing. “I lost my uncle, my cousins and my relatives.”
The attack was condemned by world leaders and the Israeli military said it was investigating.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said on X that two-thirds of the schools it runs in the Gaza Strip, which have served as shelters for displaced Palestinians since the start of the war, were hit, killing 524 people .
“UN structures, schools and shelters are not a target,” he said.
On Wednesday, the Israeli army also said it attacked fighters inside UNRWA headquarters.
On a visit to central Gaza on Wednesday, Israel’s military chief, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, said forces were operating in different ways, in multiple parts of the territory “to fulfill a very important mission: pressure”.
“We will continue to operate to bring the hostages home,” Halevi said.
At least 38,295 people have been killed and 88,241 injured in Israel’s war on Gaza since October, according to Palestinian officials. Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Wednesday that 52 Palestinians had been killed and 208 injured in the previous 24 hours.
Israel launched its war on Gaza after Hamas led an attack on southern Israel, killing at least 1,139 people, according to an Al Jazeera tally based on Israeli statistics, and capturing about 250 other people hostage, dozens of whom remain in captivity in Gaza.
Progress in ceasefire negotiations?
The intensification of Israeli military activity comes at a time when mediators from the United States, Egypt and Qatar met with Israeli officials in the Qatari capital, Doha, for talks aimed at a long-elusive ceasefire agreement and a exchange of prisoners held by Hamas for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
Hamas officials have raised concerns that heavy Israeli strikes in recent days across the territory could derail negotiations.
Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, said on Monday that Israel’s growing onslaught threatened talks at a crucial moment and could bring talks “back to square one.”
Hamas, however, still wants international mediators to ensure that the truce talks in Doha end in a permanent ceasefire. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that he will not agree to any deal that would force Israel to stop its campaign in Gaza without eliminating Hamas.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
