GAZA/CAIRO: Gaza’s civil defence agency on Tuesday said an Israeli strike killed at least 17 people at a refugee camp in the centre of the territory.

“The civil defence teams recovered 17 martyrs, including children, and several others who were wounded from the three-story home of the Abdul Hadi family, which was bombed by a missile from an (Israeli) warplane in Al Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza,” agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said in a statement.

Bassal said the bodies of those killed and the wounded were taken to Al Awda hospital in Nuseirat camp and to Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the city of Deir el Balah. Medics at Al Awda confirmed the toll.

Kamal Adwan and Al Awda hospitals in northern Gaza have been asked to evacuate in the past 48 hours, World Health Organisation officials told a briefing in Cairo. Fewer than half of Gaza’s hospitals remain even partially functioning after a year of Israeli bombardments.

Troops return to several areas across the besieged territory

Bassal earlier said that several air strikes rocked central and northern Gaza since the early hours of Tuesday. Israel sent tanks deeper into Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip and told people to leave as it pounded the historic Palestinian refugee camp from the air, residents said. Palestinian medics said casualties had been reported in Jabalia but they were unable to reach areas under fire.

Iman Abu Najm, 33, left her home as the latest Israeli attack began in Jabaliya. “The shelling was relentless, children were screaming, people were panicking in the streets, and gunfire was targeting houses and people,” she said, describing the chaos that unfolded during the air strikes. She said many people were “trapped in their homes, unable to leave as intense gunfire continued”.

“Jabalia is being wiped out,” was repeated in many messages posted on social media by residents of Gaza, who on Monday marked the first anniversary of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

In recent months, troops have returned to several areas across the Palestinian territory where they had previously conducted operations. Many residents of Jabaliya fled from their homes or tents as Israeli warplanes bombarded the area.

The Israeli army issued new evacuation orders to residents of Jabalia and nearby Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, telling them to head to a humanitarian-designated zone in Al Mawasi in the south of the crowded coastal enclave.

“Jabalia is being bombed as if the war has just begun and the world is blind about it,” said Salah, 60, a father of five who is a resident of Gaza City. “We live at least seven kilometres away, but the sounds of Israeli airstrikes and tank shelling deprive us of sleep. The world must stop Israeli crimes,” he said via a chat app.

The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said fighters had retaliated Israeli forces in the north with anti-tank rockets, and that there were casualties among the Israeli troops.

Israel’s ensuing offensive in Gaza has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians, the enclave’s health ministry says. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced and humanitarian conditions have deteriorated sharply.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2024