By EFE
08 Jul 2024, 13:23 PM EDT
The Israeli army is once again operating in the heart of Gaza City, in the north of the Strip, after ordering residents of several neighborhoods in the city to evacuate towards Deir al Balah (center) and while troops are still maintaining an offensive in Rafah, at the southern end of the enclave.
Among the areas affected by the evacuation orders are several residential areas that had already been razed in Israeli attacks in November and December last year, but to which residents had returned after fighting shifted southwards.
Thus, neighborhoods such as Sabra, Rimal, Tal al Hawa, and Daraj, important residential areas in the heart of Gaza City, received evacuation orders on Monday from the Israeli Army, which has been intensively bombarding the town since early Monday morning.
The situation comes in parallel with a new military incursion by the Israeli army in the southern and western neighbourhoods of the city, while an intense operation has been ongoing for more than ten days in Shujaiya, a former Hamas stronghold in the south-east of the capital where its troops have returned.
Israeli forces said in a statement on Monday that they had located a Hamas headquarters in the area, spread out among several schools and a clinic, which had been “converted from civilian use to terrorist purposes.”
Dozens of weapons, including mortars, machine guns and grenades, were found at the facility, as well as a weapons manufacturing plant. Intelligence documents were also found hidden among uniforms and equipment belonging to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), the army said.
Moving to Deir al Balah
Israel has called on people in evacuated neighbourhoods in Gaza City to move to the “humanitarian zone” in the town of Deir al-Balah, where it carried out heavy attacks over the weekend.
In a statement, the Islamist group Hamas condemned the forced evacuations of civilians, calling them “the continuation of a war of extermination against our Palestinian people for more than nine months.”
He also insisted that he would continue to fight Israeli forces, and reiterated his call to the UN and the international community to press for an end to the war in Gaza, which has already claimed the lives of 38,193 people, according to the latest figures from the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.
In the south, Israeli forces have been continuing their offensive against southern Rafah for more than two months, where at least one woman was killed and three of her children were wounded in a bombing of a house in the Musabah area in the north of the city.
“Over the past day, Army and Air Force troops have operated to eliminate more than 30 terrorists who posed a threat” to the troops, a military statement said.
The entry of Israeli forces into the city, where more than a million displaced Palestinians were sheltering, has further complicated the distribution of humanitarian aid in the devastated Palestinian enclave following the closure of the border crossing with Egypt, which has remained closed since early May.
Stop the fire
Meanwhile, efforts continue to reach a ceasefire agreement that would allow for an exchange of Israeli hostages in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Last night, the head of Israel’s internal security agency Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, traveled to Cairo to take part in indirect negotiations with Hamas to achieve a ceasefire that would allow for an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
According to Israeli media outlet Walla, Bar will be involved in talks on the names of Palestinian prisoners who would be released in the event of a deal, as well as on future control of the Rafah border crossing into Egypt.
Cairo will host delegations from the United States and Israel in the coming days to discuss “pending points” regarding a possible ceasefire in the Strip.
While the warring parties view the latest round of negotiations positively, they are insisting on what have been their red lines for months: for Hamas, achieving a definitive end to the war in Gaza, and for Israel, ending Hamas’ control over the enclave, in addition to rescuing all the hostages.
Keep reading:
- Israel extends evacuation of borders with Gaza and Lebanon until August
- Mass protests in Israel call for ceasefire
- Israel remains in central Gaza awaiting follow-up negotiations