2024-07-06 21:31:05
Israel bombed the Gaza Strip on Tuesday after issuing evacuation orders that have forced hundreds of thousands of inhabitants to flee several sectors of the southern Palestinian territory, devastated by almost nine months of war between the Israeli army and the Islamist movement Hamas.
Witnesses and an AFP journalist reported a multitude of Israeli bombings on Tuesday morning in Khan Yunis and its surroundings in the south of the territory.
Eight people died in Israeli airstrikes in Khan Yunis and Rafah, also in the south, and more than thirty were injured, according to the Red Crescent and a medical source.
The Israeli army said it was continuing its operations in a neighborhood of Gaza City, in the north, in Rafah, and in the center of the territory, after having ordered on Monday a new evacuation of sectors of the south, where Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have already fled the fighting for several weeks.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Tuesday that the measure affects 250,000 people in the south of the Gaza Strip.
“We have seen people moving, families moving, people packing their belongings and trying to leave” these areas, said Louise Wateridge, a spokeswoman for UNRWA.
– “It remains to be seen” –
Families of displaced people fled amid the ruins of Khan Yunison foot or crammed into vehicles, AFP found.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged on Sunday that the army was fighting a “difficult fight” in the Gaza Strip, near nine months after the start of the war triggered by an unprecedented Hamas attack in Israel on October 7.
That day, Islamist militants killed 1,195 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 251 in southern Israel, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
The Israeli army estimates that 116 people remain captive in Gaza42 of whom are believed to have died.
In response, Israel launched an offensive that has already left at least 37,925 dead in Gazamostly civilians, according to the Ministry of Health of the Hamas government, which has been in power in this territory since 2007.
“We are approaching the end of the phase of eliminating the Hamas terrorist army,” Netanyahu said on Monday, after having assured more than a week ago that the “intense” phase of the war was coming to an end.
“We have heard from Israel that it is significantly reducing its operations in the Gaza Strip. That remains to be seen,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
Meanwhile, negotiations to reach a truce agreement remain stalled.
– Nowhere to stay –
Israeli troops launched a ground operation in Rafah on May 7on the border with Egypt, with the aim of combating what they described as the last major Hamas stronghold, an offensive that triggered an exodus of one million Palestinians, according to the UN.
However, fighting has intensified again in recent weeks in several regions the army said it controlled, especially in the north, as the offensive continues in Rafah.
The new evacuation orders for several sectors in the south of the Gaza Strip come several hours after a barrage of projectiles were launched towards Israel and claimed by Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian armed group allied to Hamas.
The army said Tuesday that it had bombed the site from which the rockets were fired the day before, near Khan Yunis, mainly a weapons depot, operations centres and other terrorist “infrastructures”.
In the north, the army continued on Tuesday its operations that began on June 27 in Shujaiya, a neighborhood in eastern Gaza City where it says it had eliminated “numerous terrorists.”
An AFP correspondent reported on Tuesday new bombings in this sector, as well as in the Zeitun sector, also in Gaza City. Between 60,000 and 80,000 people have fled the east and northeast of the city in recent days.according to the UN.
“We have fled Shujaiya. The situation is very difficult. We have nowhere to stay. We are looking for water but we can’t find any,” said a Palestinian who has taken refuge in the west of the town.
– “Grave error” –
The war has caused massive population displacement and a humanitarian catastrophe in the Palestinian territory, where water and food are scarce. Thousands of children suffer from malnutrition, according to the World Health Organization.
Dozens of Palestinian prisoners, including the director of Gaza City’s Al Shifa hospital, Mohamed Abu Salmiya, were released by Israel on Monday and transferred to hospitals in the Gaza Strip, according to a medical source.
Salmiya said he had been subjected to “serious torture” during his seven months in detention. Netanyahu denounced this release as “a grave mistake” and said that “the place of this man, under whose responsibility our hostages died and were held, is in prison.”
2024-07-06 21:31:05