Palestinians flee Shejaiya amid Israeli bombardment

[Pelican Press 0]

Palestinians flee Shejaiya amid ******** bombardment

Palestinians have been fleeing Gaza City’s eastern Shejaiya district amid intense ******** bombardment and a reported incursion by ground forces.

One Gaza City resident said it had “sounded as if the war is restarting”, while ******-run authorities said air strikes had ******* at least seven people.

************ armed groups said they had targeted a tank and a bulldozer east of Shejaiya, where there were fierce battles during an ******** operation at the end of last year.

The ******** military has not commented on the reports, but it did order residents to evacuate and head southwards.

It comes days after *******’s prime minister said that “the intense phase” of the fighting against ****** was “about to end”.

The ******** military launched a campaign to ******** ****** in response to an unprecedented ******* on southern ******* on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were ******* and 251 others were taken ********.

More than 37,760 people have been ******* in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s ******-run health ministry.

Shejaiya residents and ******-affiliated ************ media reported a series of ******** air strikes, artillery shelling and helicopter ***** on Thursday morning.

Later, they said ******** ground forces had advanced into eastern areas of the district, which is not far from the Gaza-******* perimeter fence.

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after what he said was an air strike on a multi-storey building.

Other footage appeared to show hundreds of civilians fleeing the area on foot, many of them carrying their belongings, and several injured children being treated at a field hospital.

One person told the AFP news agency that the situation in Shejaiya was “very difficult and frightening”.

“Residents are running through the streets in *******… a number of wounded and martyrs lie in the streets,” they added.

Gaza’s ******-run Civil Defence force reported strikes on several houses and said its rescue teams had recovered three bodies from the home of one family.

Later, it said the ****** toll in Shejaiya had risen to seven and that more casualties were feared to be under the rubble of destroyed buildings.

The ******* Defense Forces (IDF) did not put out a statement about Shejaiya.

However, it has mounted similar operations in northern Gaza in recent months in response to what it says is intelligence that ****** fighters have regrouped there.

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after the first strikes had been reported.

“For your safety, you must evacuate immediately south on Salah al-Din Street to the humanitarian zone,” Lt Col Avichay Adraee said, referring to the north-south road used in the early weeks of the war by the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled Gaza City when it was the initial focus of *******’s offensive against ******.

An attached map featured an arrow pointing south, but it was not clear whether Shejaiya residents were being instructed to head towards the “al-Mawasi humanitarian area” running along the coast in southern and central Gaza. That would entail crossing the east-west ******** military zone south of Gaza City that effectively cuts the territory in half.

The al-Mawasi humanitarian area was expanded seven weeks ago, when ******** ground forces began what they called “precise” operations in the southernmost city of Rafah, which they believe is ******’s last stronghold.

More than a million displaced people have fled Rafah since then, according to the UN, while the nearby Rafah border crossing with Egypt has been closed since ******** troops seized control of the ************ side.

The UN says the crossing’s closure has contributed to a significant reduction in the amount of aid reaching southern Gaza.

It has also prevented the medical evacuations of critically injured and ***** Palestinians who require specialist treatment abroad.

On Thursday, 21 children with ******* were reportedly allowed to leave Gaza through the Kerem Shalom goods crossing with ******* for the first time, an Egyptian medical source told AFP.

There was no immediate confirmation from ******** authorities, nor was it clear where they would receive treatment.

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#Palestinians #flee #Shejaiya #******** #bombardment

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