DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — The Israeli military on Monday renewed warnings for Palestinians in Gaza not to return to the north of the embattled territory, a day after Gaza hospital authorities said five people were killed as crowds of displaced residents tried to reach their homes. in the war-torn area.
Northern Gaza was one of the first targets of Israel’s war against Hamas and vast parts of it were leveled, forcing much of the region’s population to flee south. Although around 250,000 people are said to live in the north, the Israeli military has prevented the return of most people displaced during the six-month war, saying the area is an active battle zone.
The military has reduced the number of troops it has in Gaza and said it has loosened Hamas’s control over the north, but Israel is still carrying out air strikes and targeted operations in the area against what it says is reorganizing militants, mainly in the Gaza zone. . main hospital, Shifa, which is in ruins after a two-week operation and fighting last month.
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that Palestinians should remain in southern Gaza, where they were instructed to take shelter, because the north is a “dangerous combat zone.”
People appeared to be heeding the new warning, especially after Sunday’s violence.
Hospital authorities in Gaza said five people were killed by Israeli forces as they tried to travel north to their homes. Their bodies were taken to Awda hospital in the Nuseirat urban camp in central Gaza, hospital records showed. Another 54 were injured in the incident, records showed.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment and the precise circumstances behind the deaths were not immediately clear.
Anaam Mohammad, who was displaced from the northern city of Beit Hanoun and was trying to return, said the military was allowing women and children to pass, but when a group of Palestinians did not make room for them to pass, two tanks arrived and opened fire. Forces also threw smoke bombs, dispersing the crowd.
“People started to flee. People were scared and couldn’t take the risk and enter a dangerous area,” she said.
Before Sunday’s violence, crowds filled a coastal road and moved north on foot and in donkey carts. The returnees said they were driven to make the dangerous journey because they were fed up with the harsh conditions they are forced to live under while displaced.
“We want our homes. We want our lives. We want to return, whether with or without a truce,” said Um Nidhal Khatab, who was displaced from the north.
Northern Gaza and the return of its population is a key point of contention between Israel and Hamas in ongoing negotiations to try to reach a ceasefire in exchange for the release of hostages taken by the militant group. Israel wants to try to delay the return to prevent militants from regrouping in the north, while Hamas says it wants a free flow of returnees.
The war has had a staggering impact on civilians in Gaza, with most of the territory’s 2.3 million people displaced by the fighting and living in dire circumstances, with little food and often in tents and with no end in sight to the your misery. Large areas of the urban landscape were damaged or destroyed, leaving many displaced Palestinians with nowhere to return.
Six months of fighting in Gaza has pushed the small Palestinian territory into a humanitarian crisis, leaving more than 1 million people on the brink of starvation.
Famine is said to be imminent in the hard-hit north, where aid has struggled to reach due to the fighting. Israel has opened a new passage for aid trucks to the north as aid deliveries to the beleaguered enclave increase. However, the United Nations says the increase in aid is not being felt in Gaza due to persistent distribution difficulties.
The UN food agency said on Monday it had managed to deliver fuel and wheat flour to a bakery in the isolated northern Gaza City for the first time since the start of the war.
The conflict began on October 7, when Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis, most of them civilians, in a surprise attack and incursion in southern Israel. Around 250 people were taken hostage by the militants and taken to Gaza. A deal in November freed about 100 hostages, leaving about 130 in captivity, although Israel says about a quarter of them are dead.
Israeli bombings and ground offensives in Gaza have killed more than 33,700 Palestinians and injured more than 76,200, the Gaza Ministry of Health says. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its calculation, but says that women and children account for two-thirds of the dead.
Israel claims to have killed more than 12,000 militants during the war, but has provided no evidence to support the claim.
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Magdy reported from Cairo.
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