As Israel plans to seize Gaza’s largest urban center and forcefully send around one million Palestinians to concentration camps in the south, it has already killed at least 78 people in the besieged enclave since dawn, 32 of whom are desperately seeking food.
After Israeli shelling, a fire broke out in tents close to al-Quds Hospital on Sunday, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense in Gaza City. When a residential apartment was struck close to the Remal neighborhood, at least five people died and three were hurt.
The Israeli army is also using “explosive robots” in residential areas and forcing Palestinians to relocate in Gaza City, according to Ismail al-Thawabta, director of the Gaza-based Government Media Office.
In a statement on X on Sunday, al-Thawabta claimed that the army had exploded more than 80 bombs in residential areas over the past three weeks, calling it a “scorched-earth policy” that had resulted in the destruction of homes and the death of lives.
Despite the destruction and starvation caused by the Israeli assault, more than one million Palestinians in Gaza City and the north of the region “refuse to submit to the policy of forced displacement and ethnic cleansing.”
The moments that followed an Israeli aerial attack on the Sabra neighborhood in Gaza City were captured in footage that was uploaded to Instagram by Palestinian journalist Faiz Osama and verified by Al Jazeera.
A child can be seen screaming and getting a leg wound as smoke plumes skyward in the video. A man also appears to have a head injury while lying on the ground.
The explosion-caused flattening of residential buildings, which the video also shows.
As part of a growing push to seize Gaza City in the most recent phase of its nearly two-year genocidal war, Israel’s forces have been consistently bombarding the area since early August.
The Israeli military declared the area a “combat zone” on Friday, citing the start of its offensive as the “initial stages.”
Rubble-filled “fields”
Hani Mahmoud, a journalist from Gaza City, reported on Sunday that more frequented areas of the city are now dubbed “fields of rubble” due to increased Israeli attacks.
The Zeitoun and Jabalia areas, where homes are being systematically destroyed, are the targets of constant, heavy artillery fire. He claimed that there is hardly any fighting occurring, but that heavy artillery and bulldozers are moving between streets and destroy all of these residential clusters.
Because there is no safety anywhere, the majority of people in those areas do not have the luxury of packing up and leaving. ”
On Sunday, another Palestinian journalist was killed as well. Islam Abed worked for Al-Quds Al-Youm TV channel, according to a source at al-Shifa Hospital, and was killed in an Israeli attack in Gaza City.
Since the start of the war, the government media office reported that there have been 247 martyred journalists. More than 270 journalists and media workers have been killed as a result of other tallies.
Five journalists, one of whom worked for Al Jazeera, were spotted at least on Monday; 21 people were killed; in an Israeli attack on Khan Younis in southern Gaza’s Nasser Hospital.
We will remain in our homes because life is challenging.
Despite Israel calling Gaza City a “combat zone,” many residents choose to stay put.
Before the war broke out, it was the city with the highest population in Gaza, with about 700,000 residents. After that, hundreds of thousands of people flocked to Israel for a January-to-March ceasefire that Israel broke, and many returned with thousands of other displaced people.
Despite Israel’s most recent warning, Fedaa Hamad, who was relocated from Beit Hanoon, said she has “no plans to leave” Gaza City this time.
We have experienced initial displacement, and we are exhausted. What destination will we visit? Does the south have a place? She said, “We can’t find it.”
A resident of Gaza City, Akram Mzini, said he would not flee because displacement is “very difficult”.
Before, we were displaced to the south, and displacement there is expensive and difficult. We will remain in our homes and follow whatever God desires, because life is difficult. ”
At least four people were killed in an Israeli attack on the Deir el-Balah center on Sunday, according to Al Jazeera Arabic in Gaza.
According to earlier reports from medical sources, an Israeli bombardment in the city’s central Gaza Strip killed at least one person and injured several others.
78 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by Israeli forces since dawn, including 32 who sought aid, according to medical sources.
At least 63,459 people have been killed and 160,256 have been wounded since the war started. During the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, 1,139 people were killed in Israel, and about 200 were taken prisoner.
Eyal Zamir, the head of the Israeli army, met with his top commanders on Sunday to discuss the need for the military to “initiate” more attacks that surprise and target anyplace.
According to Zamir, the military is citing the military’s statement that many more reserve soldiers will be stationed this week to “prepare for the continued intensification of the fighting against Hamas in Gaza City.”
Hamas’ armed wing reported that its fighters on Saturday successfully attacked two Israeli military vehicles in Gaza City.
A D9 military bulldozer was reportedly targeted with an explosive device on a street southwest of the besieged area, according to the Qassam Brigades, while a Merkava tank of the Israeli army was hit by a Yassin-105 shell.
The Global Sumud Flotilla left Barcelona on Sunday in the biggest attempt to break the Israeli blockade of the Palestinian territory by sea, as the world’s condemnation of the situation grows.
The launch of the flotilla comes after this month’s Gaza state of famine was declared by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).
The Global Sumud Flotilla, a group of independent individuals without any affiliation with any political party or government, did not specify how many ships would sail or when they would depart, but Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg referred to “dozens” of vessels.
In Arabic, the word sumud means “persistence.”
Israel had previously blocked activists’ attempts to deliver aid by ship to Gaza.
Although the flotilla was an important act of symbolic resistance, Mohamad Elmasry of the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies claimed that they would eventually be intercepted.
Source: Aljazeera
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