The Israeli army carried out intense shelling in the Jabalia refugee camp, killing at least 17 people hours after forcing residents of the area to leave again, in its third ground attack on the densely populated Jabalia camp. northern Gaza since the war began a year ago.
The Palestinian civil defense agency said Sunday that nine children were killed following air attacks and the army’s deployment of tanks to the area for the first time in months.
Palestinian Civil Defense spokesman in Gaza Mahmoud Basal added that Jabalia was the target of multiple strikes overnight, causing many casualties. Residents of Jabalia described the intensifying attacks as some of the worst in months.
“Dozens of explosions from airstrikes and tank shelling shook the ground and buildings. It felt like the first days of the war,” Raed, 52, from Jabalia, told the Reuters news agency before his family left for Gaza City on Sunday.
On Sunday morning, the Israeli military said its forces had “succeeded” in surrounding the refugee camp and were operating in the area.
The military said the decision was made after intelligence indicated “the presence of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure in the Jabalia region… as well as Hamas’ efforts to rebuild its operational capabilities in the region.”
Israel has destroyed hospitals, schools and residential areas, claiming Hamas was operating under their direction, but without providing proof of its claims. Rights groups call the attacks war crimes.
Meanwhile, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad said its fighters targeted “a command and control room” belonging to Israeli forces trying to enter the Jabalia refugee camp.
A “deteriorating” situation
In a report near Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabalia, journalist Moath al-Kahlout said the situation in the north was “deteriorating”, adding that an “entire family” had been killed in the nightly attacks.
“The Israeli army has dropped leaflets on the Jabalia refugee camp ordering people to flee their homes, and this alarming development suggests that the Israeli army is preparing for further attacks. This could lead to more civilian deaths and injuries,” he said.
Military and security analyst Elijah Magnier said Israel’s new ground invasion of northern Gaza was “inevitable,” while far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich claimed that Palestinian armed resistance groups had recruited “more than a thousand people”.
“The Israelis returned to Gaza several times, they returned to the north several times, they destroyed the infrastructure, the hospitals, everything,” Magnier told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“They will continue to do so unless (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu ends this war. »
Evacuation orders
The Israeli military has called on Palestinians in northern Gaza to flee to designated “safe zones” in southern and central Gaza as it begins a new ground offensive. But no place in Gaza is safe for Palestinians, including so-called “safe zones”, activists say.
But as some Palestinians begin heading south, Gaza’s interior ministry has called on residents to ignore Israel’s evacuation orders.
“Israeli claims about the presence of safe zones in southern Gaza are lies while Israel commits crimes and massacres in all areas of the enclave,” the ministry said in a statement.
“We call on citizens of northern Gaza to ignore Israeli threats. »
From Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hind Khoudary said the difference this time, compared to previous evacuation orders, is that it’s not just blocks but of entire areas.
“Some of the Palestinians who were in the north refused to evacuate despite the attacks but also the famine and the difficult conditions that the blockade imposed on them. They still refuse to leave,” Khoudary said.
She added that a member of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) was also targeted by Sunday’s strikes and was killed.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 41,870 Palestinians have been killed and 97,166 others injured since the war began on October 7.