2024-07-10 05:44:31
On the second day of an intense assault on the Gaza Strip, Israeli tanks continued their advance into some neighborhoods of Gaza City, including Shujaiya, Sabra and Tel al-Hawa, where residents reported the fiercest fighting since the outbreak of the war, as Israeli forces killed at least 18 Palestinians on Tuesday.
Qatari and Egyptian mediation efforts, backed by the United States, intensified this week to reach a ceasefire agreement aimed at ending the war in the Gaza Strip and releasing Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
Following Israeli evacuation orders, thousands were forced to leave their homes in Gaza City, north of the Strip, and head west towards the Mediterranean coast and south.
The UN Human Rights Office considered the evacuation orders to be illogical, and issued against civilians, many of whom had been forcibly displaced several times, forcing them to move to areas witnessing Israeli military operations and where cases of killing and injury were recorded.
He said Gaza residents who had been told to leave central Gaza City to the west on Monday were caught up in fresh fighting when the Israeli military intensified its strikes in the south and west of Gaza City, targeting the same areas it had instructed people to move to.
These are the third evacuation orders since June 27 for residents of the northern Gaza Strip, in addition to an evacuation order for residents of the southern Gaza Strip during the same period, in a new escalation of military operations.
The Israeli army said in a statement that it is continuing its operations in Gaza City based on intelligence information indicating the presence of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the area.
He added that the Israeli forces killed dozens of fighters and found many weapons.
Palestinian health officials said an Israeli air strike killed six people in a house in Gaza City, and nine others were killed in separate strikes on two homes in Nuseirat and Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
Medics said an Israeli air strike on the Tel al-Sultan neighbourhood, west of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, killed three Palestinians.
In addition, the Israeli army said in a statement that “based on intelligence information and using precision munitions, the Israeli Air Force struck a number of terrorists who were carrying out terrorist activities, using school buildings in the Nusairat area as cover.”
The army added that “this site was used as a hideout and operational infrastructure from which attacks were carried out against soldiers,” noting that “several measures were taken to reduce the risk of harm to civilians.”
For his part, a source at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat told Agence France-Presse that the hospital “received a number of wounded people who were injured as a result of targeting the gate of a UNRWA school in the new camp in Nuseirat.”
The Israeli army accuses both Hamas and Islamic Jihad of “systematically violating international law by using civilian buildings and residents (in Gaza) as human shields to launch terrorist attacks against the State of Israel.”
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2024-07-10 05:44:31