CAIRO: Israeli forces stepped up bombardment across the Gaza Strip on Thursday and ordered more evacuations, creating a fresh wave of displacement from northern Gaza, to which Palestinians fear they will not be able to return.
Palestinian health officials said at least 10 people had been killed and several others wounded in an Israeli air strike on a school housing displaced families in Shati refugee camp in Gaza City. There was no immediate Israeli comment.
As Israeli tanks advanced in Beit Lahiya, a month into a new push on northern Gaza, dozens of families streamed out, arriving at schools and other shelters in Gaza City with whatever belongings and food they could bring. Drones hovered overhead broadcasting evacuation orders, which were also carried on social media outlets, audio and text messages sent to residents' phones, one displaced man said.
"After they displaced most or all of the people in Jabalia, now they are bombing everywhere, killing people on the roads and inside their houses to force everyone out," the man said via a chat app, giving only one name, Ahmed, for fear of repercussions. Palestinian officials say Israel is carrying out a plan of "ethnic cleansing". Residents say no aid has entered Jabalia, Beit Lahiya or Beit Hanoun since the operation began on October 5. The Israeli military says it was forced to clear Jabalia and start clearing nearby Beit Lahiya on Wednesday in order to take on Hamas militants who it says have regrouped there.
It denied press reports that people evacuated from northern Gaza would not be allowed to return and said it was continuing to allow aid into northern Gaza and the Jabalia area, where it said it was engaged in "intense combat".
"The statement attributed to the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) in the past 24 hours, claiming that residents of northern Gaza will not be allowed to return to their homes, is incorrect and does not reflect the IDF’s objectives and values," it said. It said 300 trucks of aid from the United Arab Emirates had arrived at the port of Ashdod and would be sent into Gaza via the Erez crossing in the north and Kerem Shalom in the south.
Later, the army posted new evacuation orders to residents in neighbourhoods near and inside Gaza City, citing rocket launches from there by Palestinian militants. The new orders covered the northern part of the Shati camp and three other neighbourhoods in Gaza City.
Palestinian medics said Israeli fire had killed six people in Jabalia, the largest of the enclave's eight historic refugee camps, as well as four people in Beit Lahiya and seven in Rafah, near the border with Egypt in southern Gaza. The Israeli military said forces operating in Jabalia had killed about 50 militants in the past 24 hours and had helped Palestinians to exit combat zones through organised routes. Palestinian and UN officials say there are no safe areas in the enclave, most of whose 2.3 million people have been forced to leave their homes. Israel's ground campaign to annihilate the Islamist movement, more than a year old, has turned much of the Gaza Strip into a wasteland suffering a humanitarian catastrophe. — Reuters
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