Three Palestinian boys carry two bowls of meals every, because the make their means alongside a avenue previous the rubble of buildings destroyed in earlier Israeli bombardment, within the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, north of Gaza Metropolis on July 3, 2024, amid the continuing battle between Israel and the militant Hamas group. Israel’s navy stated on July 3, it was conducting raids backed by air strikes in northern Gaza, killing “dozens” of militants in an space the place it had declared the command construction of Hamas dismantled months in the past. (AFP)
PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES – Tens of hundreds of Palestinians have fled southern Gaza since Israel issued an evacuation order, amid fears of a brand new offensive within the space which got here beneath Israeli bombardment on Wednesday.
On Israel’s northern entrance, Lebanon’s Hezbollah stated it fired 100 rockets at Israeli targets in retaliation for a strike that killed a senior commander, heightening fears of full-scale battle between the longtime foes.
Palestinian militant group Hamas stated it had despatched new “concepts” to Qatari mediators on ending the practically nine-month battle with Israel, which confirmed it was “evaluating” Hamas’s assertion on a deal to free its hostages.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier reiterated that Israel would solely finish its battle with Hamas within the Gaza Strip as soon as its goals have been achieved.
His navy chief, Herzi Halevi, stated Israel was engaged in “a protracted marketing campaign” to destroy Hamas over the October 7 assault and to carry residence the hostages held by Palestinian militants.
The United Nations stated battle had “unleashed a maelstrom of human distress” and that the newest evacuation order had plunged but extra Palestinians into “an abyss of struggling”.
Ten days after Netanyahu stated the battle’s “intense section” was winding down, the Israeli navy once more rained down air strikes and artillery hearth on militants within the Shujaiya district.
The air drive struck “over 50 terror infrastructure websites” throughout Gaza in 24 hours whereas floor troops “eradicated terrorists”, positioned tunnels and located weapons together with AK-47 assault rifles, the navy stated.
1000’s have fled the combating in Shujaiya, amongst them Umm Bashar al-Jamal, 42, who was now sheltering in Gaza Metropolis’s Yarmuk sports activities stadium.
“We have been displaced 5 days in the past,” she stated. “We fled from Shujaiya. We woke as much as the sound of tanks. The homes have been bulldozed. All our houses!”
The Israeli military — which issued an evacuation order for Shujaiya per week in the past — on Monday did the identical for a bigger space close to Khan Yunis and Rafah within the south, elevating fears of renewed heavy battles there.
Tens of hundreds of Palestinians have once more taken to the street, many bundling their scant belongings on high of vehicles or donkey carts as they sought security elsewhere within the bombed-out wasteland.
‘Pawns in a board sport’
The UN company supporting Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, stated 250,000 individuals had been affected by the newest evacuation order that covers southern areas bordering Israel and Egypt.
Virtually all sufferers within the European Gaza Hospital and the Pink Cross discipline hospital determined to flee following the evacuation order, the World Well being Group stated.
Although the European Gaza Hospital itself isn’t beneath evacuation directions, the order has impacted operations.
“Now solely three sufferers stay on the European Gaza Hospital and three on the ICRC discipline hospital,” the WHO stated, citing figures from Tuesday.
UN chief Antonio Guterres’s spokesman stated the southern evacuation order covers 117 sq. kilometres (45 sq. miles), “making it the most important such order since October”.
“Frankly, it’s a step within the mistaken course. The course we need to be heading is to discover a negotiated two states answer,” stated the spokesman, Stephane Dujarric.
Andrea De Domenico, who heads the United Nations humanitarian workplace, OCHA, within the occupied Palestinian territories, stated 9 out of 10 individuals in Gaza had been displaced at the very least as soon as by the battle.
“Behind these numbers, there are individuals… which have fears and grievances. And so they had in all probability desires and hopes; the much less and fewer I worry at this time, sadly,” he informed journalists.
“Individuals who within the final 9 months have been moved round like pawns in a board sport.”
Amid the battle, siege and mass displacement, greater than 150,000 individuals have contracted pores and skin ailments within the squalid circumstances, the World Well being Group stated.
Wafaa Elwan, a Palestinian mom of seven who now lives in a tent metropolis, stated: “We sleep on the bottom, on sand the place worms come out beneath us.”
She stated her five-year-old son, a lot of whose physique was coated in rashes and welts, “can’t sleep by means of the night time as a result of he can’t cease scratching his physique”.
‘Winds of defeatism’
The Gaza battle broke out after Hamas’s October 7 assault on southern Israel resulted within the deaths of 1,195 individuals, largely civilians, in line with an AFP tally primarily based on Israeli figures.
The militants additionally seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom stay in Gaza together with 42 the military says are useless.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at the very least 37,953 individuals, additionally largely civilians, in line with figures from the Hamas-run territory’s well being ministry.
The Israeli navy stated Wednesday that “operational actions proceed all through the Gaza Strip”.
The Gaza civil defence company stated seven individuals have been killed when a strike hit a household home north of Gaza Metropolis.
One other strike killed three individuals in a automobile at Al-Maghazi refugee camp within the central Deir al-Balah space, an AFP reporter stated.
The New York Instances has quoted Israeli safety officers as saying high generals see a truce as one of the simplest ways to safe the discharge of the remaining hostages, even when that meant not reaching all of the battle objectives.
Netanyahu strongly rejected this and vowed Israel wouldn’t give in to the “winds of defeatism”.
“The battle will finish as soon as Israel achieves all of its goals, together with the destruction of Hamas and the discharge of all of our hostages,” he stated.
On the Israeli-Lebanese border, violence escalated between Hezbollah and Israeli forces.
The Israeli navy confirmed it killed a Hezbollah commander and, in response, Hezbollah stated it fired “100 Katyusha rockets” at Israeli positions within the annexed Golan Heights.
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The Iran-backed militant group additionally claimed different retaliatory strikes on two bases in northern Israel.
