Israel attacks Gaza City, orders Palestinians to go south By Reuters

Written by Nidal al-Mughrabi

Cairo (Reuters) – Israel stormed Gaza City on Thursday, telling Palestinians as tanks rolled in to move south, then bombarded the southern town of Rafah in what it said were the final stages of the fight against Hamas militants there. .

Residents of the Shejaia neighborhood in Gaza City said they were surprised by the tanks that came in and fired during the afternoon, and drones attacked again after the bombing at night.

“It felt like the war was starting again, a series of bombs destroyed several houses in our area and buildings shook,” Mohammad Jamal, 25, a resident of Gaza City, told Reuters via a live chat app.

The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said there were reports of people killed and injured in Shejaia but their teams could not reach them due to the ongoing attacks. It was reported that three people were killed there in the first incident of the bomb explosion, and five people were killed in the Sabra area.

The armed wing of Hamas ally Islamic Jihad said it detonated an explosive device planted on an Israeli tank east of Shejaia.

Israel accuses the army of hiding among civilians and says it is warning the homeless to get out of their way to fight the army.

“To all the residents and homeless people in the Shujaiya area and the new neighboring areas … To be safe, you must quickly exit south on Salah al-Din Street to the humanitarian area,” said the spokesman of the force Avichay Adraee to X.

Residents and Hamas media said tanks overturned in front of the checkpoint and people from the eastern area were fleeing to the west under fire as Israel closed the road to the south. There was no further comment from the Israeli military.

More than eight months into Israel’s war on Gaza, which began with a Hamas-led offensive on October 7, aid officials say the area is at grave risk of famine, with nearly half a million people facing “dangerous” food insecurity.

“We are dying of hunger in Gaza City, we are being hunted by tanks and planes without any hope that this war will end,” said Jamal.

ANOTHER CHILD DIES WITH A POEM

The death of another girl at Kamal Adwan Hospital on Wednesday has raised the number of children who have died from malnutrition and dehydration to at least 31, a Gaza health official said, adding that the war makes recording such cases difficult.

Israel denies allegations that it created famine conditions, blames aid agencies for distribution problems and accuses Hamas of diverting aid, allegations it denies.

In southern Gaza, drone footage on social media, which Reuters could not immediately confirm, showed dozens of houses destroyed in parts of Rafah, with the village of Swedeya west of the city completely destroyed.

There was no comment from the Israeli military about the night’s military action.

US-backed international mediation has failed to deliver a ceasefire although talks are continuing amid intense Western pressure for Gaza to receive more aid.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday he had discussed his proposals for a post-war Gaza governance that would involve the Palestinians, regional partners and the US but “it will be a long and complicated process”.

Senior US officials told Gallant, who was visiting Washington, that the US would temporarily suspend the transfer of heavy weapons to Israel while the matter was reviewed. The shipment was halted in early May due to concerns that the weapons could cause more Palestinian deaths in Gaza.

Hamas says any deal must end the war and Israel’s full withdrawal from Gaza, while Israel says it will only accept a temporary ceasefire until Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, is eliminated.

When Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel on October 7, they killed around 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.

Israel’s retaliatory strikes have so far killed 37,658 people, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Tuesday, and left the small, mostly built-up Gaza Strip in ruins.

Gaza’s health department does not distinguish between soldiers and non-soldiers, but officials say most of those killed were civilians. Israel has lost 314 soldiers in Gaza and says at least a third of the Palestinian dead are soldiers.

(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Philippa Fletcher)