Several people were killed during the Israeli assault on Shujayea in eastern Gaza City, according to Gaza Civil Defense and a doctor.
Palestinians fled the Shujayea neighborhood in Gaza City after Israeli forces carried out air raids and sent ground vehicles into the ravaged area, according to the Gaza Civil Defense.
Muhammad Ghurab, a doctor at al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City, said Thursday that the facility had received seven “martyrs, including four children” and more than 40 others wounded “as Israeli forces advanced towards the is from the Shujayea district.
Civil defense teams removed several bodies from the rubble following the attacks, civil defense said in a statement, adding that search and rescue operations were continuing.
Hamas said in a statement that the attack had left “a number of martyrs and forced thousands of Palestinians to flee under the pressure of continued bombardment on defenseless civilians.”
Hamas said the repeated attacks on “cities, camps and districts, as well as the deliberate killing of civilians and destruction of infrastructure” were part of a “fascist policy” aimed at increasing the suffering of Palestinians.
The group said it would continue to “inflict heavy losses” on the Israeli army until “aggression is stopped and expelled from our land.”
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said the majority of residents of Gaza City’s Shujayea and Tuffa neighbourhoods were displaced Palestinians.
“They were faced with another dilemma, forced to move west after the Israeli army issued stern evacuation orders, sending text messages and dropping leaflets,” Mahmoud said, adding that the orders came about 30 minutes after military operations began there.
“People are forced to move within the country many times. It has become part of their daily routine, a new normal,” Mahmoud said.
He said some families are unable to evacuate given the “dense presence of quadcopters, surveillance drones and heavy artillery.”
Surprise attack
Residents said they were startled by the sound of tanks approaching and firing early in the afternoon, with drones also attacking after the overnight bombardment of the city, which Israel had bombed at the start of its assault on Gaza.
“It felt like the war was starting again, a series of bombings that destroyed several houses in our neighborhood and shook buildings,” Gaza City resident Mohammad Jamal, 25, told Reuters news agency.
Israeli forces also continued to shell the southern town of Rafah, in what they see as the latest stage of an operation against Hamas fighters.
More than a million Palestinians had already sought refuge in the area until Israeli forces launched a ground attack last month, forcing most of those seeking refuge to flee again.
The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 47 Palestinians were killed and many others injured in the past 24 hours.
More than eight months after Israel began its assault on Gaza, humanitarian 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 are being chased by tanks and planes with no hope that this war will ever end,” Jamal said.
U.S.-backed international mediation has failed to produce a ceasefire deal, although talks continue despite 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 ambulances are no longer operational due to a lack of fuel. This represents 36% of the capacity of the PRCS ambulance fleet, the group said in a post on X.
“The PRCS calls on the international community to urgently intervene to reopen the Rafah border crossing and allow the delivery of humanitarian aid, including fuel, in order to avoid the complete collapse of the health system due to the shutdown of hospital generators,” the group added.
