The Israeli army on Monday ordered the evacuation of several areas in the southern Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had already fled in May, after a salvo of rockets was fired towards Israel from that region.
Witnesses said many residents had fled the areas, in Rafah and Khan Younis governorates, after being ordered to evacuate. AFP footage showed displaced families fleeing again amid the ruins in Khan Younis, on foot or crammed onto trailers.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged on Sunday that the army was delivering a « combat difficile » in the Palestinian territory, nearly nine months after the start of the war triggered by the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.
After launching a ground offensive on October 27 in the northern Gaza Strip, the Israeli army gradually moved south, ordering the evacuation of the areas it was targeting.
Evacuation order
On Monday, a new evacuation was ordered in the towns of al-Qarara, Bani Suheila and other towns in the eastern Khan Younis and Rafah governorates, the army’s Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, announced.
Hours earlier, Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian armed group allied with Hamas, had claimed responsibility for rocket attacks on Israeli towns near Gaza.
The army announced that « 20 projectiles » had been taken from the Khan Younis region.
“Projectiles were intercepted and others fell in southern Israel”without causing any casualties, said the army, which responded with artillery fire.
Netanyahu denounces release of Gaza hospital director
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the release on Monday of the director of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City who accused Israel of « torture »after more than seven months of detention.
The release of Mohammed Abu Salmiya sparked a skirmish between Israeli authorities. Mr. Netanyahu considered it a “serious mistake”while the Homeland Security Agency presented it as a means “to free up places in detention centers”.
Mohammed Abou Salmiya was arrested in late November and the Israeli army claimed that under his leadership the hospital had been “scene of many Hamas terrorist activities”an Islamist movement whose unprecedented attack on October 7 in Israel triggered a war in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian man said on Monday that he had been detained “without charge” and have been submitted “to severe torture” during his detention, which caused a fracture to his thumb.
“For two months, the prisoners ate only one loaf of bread a day.”he continued, adding that they were “subjected to physical and psychological humiliation”.
He said that about 50 other detainees had been released. According to a medical source at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, they were transferred to medical centers.
Fighting in the North
In northern Gaza, Israeli soldiers continued on Monday their operations launched on June 27 in Shujaiya, a neighborhood in eastern Gaza City.
According to the army, “About twenty terrorists were eliminated there by dozens of air strikes” et « Many terrorists were eliminated in fighting”.
An AFP correspondent saw helicopters firing on Shujaiya, where Hamas reported fighting.
Between 60,000 and 80,000 people have fled the east and northeast of Gaza City in recent days, according to the UN.
“We fled Shujaiya. The situation is very difficult. We have no place to stay. We continue to look for water, but we cannot find any.”said a Palestinian who sought refuge in western Gaza City.
On Monday, the army announced the death in combat of a soldier in southern Gaza, bringing to 317 the number of soldiers killed since October 27.
Palestinian Authority wants to help Gaza
The Palestinian Authority announced on Monday that it wanted ” sustain “ international organizations in the Gaza Strip to respond to humanitarian needs in this territory ravaged by nearly nine months of war between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas.
“We are here to support non-governmental organizations and all humanitarian aid actors”said Basil al-Kafarna, the emergency aid minister, at a meeting in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority is headquartered.
In front of some fifteen representatives of aid organizations operating in Gaza, he defended several cooperation projects, including two online platforms to share assessments of the needs of the Gazan population on the one hand, and the difficulties encountered by these organizations on the other.
The Palestinian Authority is “able to provide information on families (the most vulnerable, editor’s note), from our social protection registration system”explained Social Development Minister Samah Hamad, mentioning at least “300,000 marginalized families in great difficulty” in the Gaza Strip.
“We have employees on the ground […]we have warehouses, we are present on site, people come to us for help”Ms. Hamad said.
