Israeli Army Continues Strikes on Gaza, Displacing Thousands: Latest Updates

Last updated 3 hours ago

Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip continued, while the Israeli army asked residents of neighborhoods as well as east of Rafah to evacuate, despite international warnings against launching a full-scale attack on the city.

The Israeli army announced that “nearly 300,000” people had been expelled from the densely populated areas of the eastern part of the city in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, since it entered this area on May 6, after calls for residents to evacuate.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) confirmed on Sunday that around 300,000 people were evacuated from Rafah last week.

UNRWA pointed out in a post on the X platform, “There is no safe place to go in the Gaza Strip.”

UNRWA noted the “continuation of forced and inhumane displacement of Palestinians.”

Meanwhile, the Civil Defense in Gaza announced on Sunday that two doctors were killed as a result of the Israeli attack on the city of Deir al-Balah in the middle of the Gaza Strip.

The Civil Defense said in a statement, “The bodies of Dr. Muhammad Nimr Qazat and his son, Dr. Youssef, were recovered as a result of the Israeli attack on the city of Deir al-Balah, and were transferred to Al-Aqsa Martyrs . Hospital in Deir al-Balah.”

The Civil Defense explained that the two doctors are from the Tal al-Hawa area in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, and that they were moved to Deir al-Balah as a result of the war between Israel and Hamas.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, renewed his call to the world “for an immediate ceasefire for humanitarian reasons.”

On Sunday, Guterres also called for “unconditional release” and an immediate increase in humanitarian aid.

He pointed out that the war in Gaza “is causing terrible suffering to people.”

Guterres believed that the ceasefire would be “only a way back from the destruction and trauma left by the war.” “

A resident of northern Gaza said the Israeli army dropped leaflets on Saturday night, “demanding the evacuation of the northern Gaza Strip and moving to areas west of Gaza City.”

He confirmed to the BBC that Saturday night “saw bombing that targeted homes. “

The sounds of bombing were heard when the man was speaking to the BBC, who said, “Every time we settle in a place, instructions are given that we have to leave this place. “

Emphasizing that movement “is not limited to individuals only, but also includes our things, not to mention old people like m ‘ father, whose health cannot withstand such a move. While we were moved on the road, we were bombed, but thank God we were not harmed.”

A woman from northern Gaza said that all the places she was moved to, including shelter schools, “were bombed and they became dangerous. The claim is safe, we found them bombing civilians.” “

Speaking to the BBC, the woman stressed, “Children live in terror and our lives have become a series of fears and intimidation. My daughter was transferred to Rafah, which it’s not a safe place either.”

She said she had “decided to go,” and wondered, “But I don’t know where to go? I don’t know where to go?”

A man from the north of Gaza declared that he wanted to stay, despite the bombing of his house on Saturday night, and despite leaflets ordering him to evacuate.

The man told the BBC, “The house was bombed at one o’clock in the night, and after that leaflets were thrown at us ordering us to evacuate the homes and start the process of evacuating all the northern areas?” This means there is no place for us to move to anymore.”

The man says, “We were displaced before and we were bombed, then we returned and found all our homes destroyed. We will remain steadfast in our homes and not be displaced. Yes people are fleeing from fear, children are crying and crying in the street, and everyone will be afraid.” He emphasizes, “But in general, we will not leave even if they bomb the house again.”

On the ground, Agence France-Presse correspondents reported night raids on various areas of the Gaza Strip, leaving more than 30 dead, according to medical sources and witnesses.

Daniel Hagari, a military spokesman for the Israeli army, said that Israeli forces are conducting an operation in Jabalia, north of the Gaza Strip, to prevent Hamas from rebuilding its military capabilities there.

Hagari said, saying: “Over the past weeks, we have monitored the efforts of Hamas to restore its military capabilities in the city of Jabalia. We are working to eliminate the those efforts.

Hagari also said that Israeli forces were operating in Gaza City and killed about 30 Palestinian militants in the Zaytoun area of ​​the city.

The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement, said on Sunday morning that they were “engaged in heavy clashes with the occupation forces in the Taqaddam axis, east of the Jabalia camp,” in the north Gaza. Struggle.

The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, announced that they had bombed with a missile barrage “the Israeli occupation population east of Rafah,” south of the Gaza Strip.

At the same time, journalists in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, through the X platform (formerly Twitter), said that the northern Gaza Strip is under violent Israeli attack.

On Saturday, the Israeli army announced an expansion of the scope of the evacuation of the area east of Rafah, which it began at the beginning of this week, asking residents of additional neighborhoods in the city to leave “immediately.”

The semi-official Egyptian Cairo News Channel reported that unnamed sources said that Egypt had agreed with Israel to increase the number of Egyptian security personnel in the border area to secure it, within the framework of the military operation launched by Israel in the east of the country. the Palestinian city of Rafah, next to the Egyptian border.

The sources of the news channel, funded by the Egyptian government, did not clarify the nature and size of these reinforcements or the type of equipment that will accompany the security elements.

Meanwhile, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement, released a video clip on Saturday of a hostage in the Gaza Strip, who appeared alive.

The length of the clip was 11 seconds, and accompanied by a text in Arabic and Hebrew that said: “Time is running out.

The Israeli army spokesman, on the X website (formerly Twitter), called on residents and displaced people in Jabalia, the northern Gaza Strip, and eleven other areas in the Street, to go immediately west of Gaza City.

The Israel Defense Forces released leaflets asking residents and displaced people to evacuate new areas in central Rafah, away from the eastern side of the border town.

The army also called on Palestinians in several areas in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, to evacuate and go to the Al-Mawasi area, which the army considers a safe humanitarian zone.

The army said in a statement, “So far, about 300,000 people have been sent into the humanitarian zone in Al-Mawasi.”

Among the areas that were instructed to evacuate on Saturday morning in Rafah were Al-Shaboura, the administrative district, the neighborhood of Al-Jeneina, and Khirbet Al-Adas, which are neighborhoods classified as dangerous fighting areas.

A resident of Rafah told the BBC, “I received a message on my mobile phone asking me to evacuate immediately from Rafah, and asking me to leave the evacuation community. We don’t know where I’ll go.”

He told the “Gaza Today” program broadcast on BBC Arabic Radio: “We were originally moved from Jabalia. I don’t have money to return to Khan Yunis to rent, but I don’t even have the money.” To rent a car.

While another said to Gaza today, “There is no place left to go. There is no place after Rafah except Egypt, and it is called moving from here… the people of the Gaza Strip.”

He continued, saying, “I brought a shoulder bag as well as the mattress I’m sleeping on. That’s all I have.”

One of the displaced women expressed to the BBC her dissatisfaction with the situation in the Gaza Strip, saying that there is no safe place in the Strip.

She said, “We have been displaced for the third time. No one has ever known what we have been suffering for months. We are living in a state of fear and horror … there is no place to pitch a tent.”

Meanwhile, United Nations humanitarian agencies said food ran out in southern Gaza on Saturday, shortly after the Rafah and Kerem Shalom border crossings were closed.

For its part, Hamas warned in a statement of the Israeli army’s continued control of the Rafah crossing and its closure for the fifth day in a row, “which has disrupted the arrival of humanitarian and medical aid” to residents. Gaza Strip.

The movement said this “reveals a humanitarian disaster and a worsening famine situation throughout the besieged Strip,” accusing the Israeli army of committing “the crime of genocide, war with starvation, and ethnic cleansing,” and holding him accountable.

Despite the intense American pressure put by Washington on Israel and the tension expressed by Gaza residents and humanitarian groups, Israel said it would continue its offensive into Rafah, where a million people have died. -creative living in search of refuge during the war that has been going on. going on for seven months.

Israel says it cannot win the war without uprooting hundreds of Hamas fighters, who it believes are based in Rafah.

US President Joe Biden’s administration said on Friday that Israel’s use of US-supplied weapons could be considered a violation of international humanitarian law during the Gaza war, the strongest criticism yet. Israel has had since the start of the war.