Israeli army attacks Shujaiya in Gaza and orders Palestinians to move south

At least seven killed and scores injured in continuing shelling of the Gaza city neighbourhood

Gazans fleeing the Shujaiya neighbourhood in eastern Gaza city. AFP

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The Israeli army on Thursday attacked Gaza city's Shujaiya neighbourhood, ordering Palestinians to evacuate the area and head to the designated “humanitarian zone” in the enclave's south.

Avichay Adraee, the Israeli army's Arabic-language spokesman, posted a list of the zones that need to be evacuated on X.

“For your safety, you must evacuate immediately south on Salah Al Din Street to the humanitarian zone,” he said.

Medical sources said that at least seven Palestinians were killed and more were injured due to the continuing shelling in the neighbourhood.

The Red Crescent said its teams had treated more than 30 injured people, most of them children and women, in Shujaiya.

“There is no safe area for residents to evacuate to in northern Gaza, moving from the northern part of the Gaza Strip to the southern part is extremely difficult,” it said in a statement.

According to witnesses, many families are still trapped around Sobha Clinic and Dalal Al Maghribi School on Al Nazzaz Street in Shujaiya, which is in the east of Gaza city.

Sarah Mohammed, a mother of a one-year-old baby boy, fled from Shujaiya and said she does not know where to go.

“We keep fleeing all the time. We can't feel any stability or safety,” Ms Mohammed told The National.

“Isn't the starvation we face enough? We also have to run for the safety of our children,” she added.

“I used to stay with relatives in a house in Al Shatee camp each time I fled, but that house was destroyed by shelling. Now where should we go?” she said.

Israeli army soldiers overlooking the Shujaiya neighbourhood in Gaza city from their position in southern Israel in December 2023. EPA

Residents of the neighbourhood said they were taken by surprise by the sound of tanks approaching and firing in the early afternoon. Drones also attacked after overnight bombing of the city, which was the focus of Israel's first military offensive in the war.

“It sounded as if the war is restarting, a series of bombings destroyed several houses in our area and shook the buildings,” Gaza city resident Mohammad Jamal, 25, told Reuters via a chat app.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli tanks stormed the neighbourhood amid heavy bombing that left scored dead and injured. The shelling forced Palestinian families to leave.

Residents and Hamas media said the tanks had moved in before the army's order and that people from the eastern suburb were running westward under fire as Israel had blocked the road south.

More than eight months into Israel's war on Gaza, triggered by the Hamas-led cross border attack on October 7, aid officials say the enclave remains at high risk of famine, with almost half a million people facing “catastrophic” food insecurity.

At least 37,700 Palestinians have been killed and 86,429 injured in the conflict, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Thursday.

A displaced Palestinian woman prepares food in a school classroom where she is sheltering, in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Reuters

West Bank violence

An Israeli army official said an explosion killed a soldier and wounded 16 others on Thursday in the occupied West Bank, in an attack claimed by the militant group Islamic Jihad.

The incident happened in Jenin, a long-standing stronghold for Palestinian militant groups. The Israeli army routinely carries out raids in the city and its adjacent refugee camp.

Captain Alon Sacgiu, 22, “fell during an operation in the Jenin sector”, the military said in an initial statement, without giving details of the circumstances of his death.

Another soldier was seriously wounded and taken to hospital, the brief statement added.

The Israeli army also said its troops carried out exercises this week as part of the Northern Command’s efforts to increase readiness amid tensions on the border with Lebanon.

The Golani Brigade, which has been operating in the Mount Dov and Mount Hermon border areas, “conducted exercises in complex areas and practised responding to various threats in co-operation with infantry, armour and artillery forces”, the military said.

Another drill by the 55th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade practised combat scenarios, including in complex terrain and advancing along a “mountainous route”, it said.

The border between the two countries has seen daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants since the October 7.

Fears of an escalation to full-blown war have grown in recent weeks as cross-border attacks intensified, and after Israel revealed it had approved plans for a Lebanon offensive, prompting new threats from Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.