Hundreds displaced from Gaza city neighbourhood after Israeli eviction order

Families flee Shujaiya on foot as Israel shells densely-populated area

Palestinians past destroyed buildings in Gaza city's Shujaiya neighbourhood in October. AFP

Live updates: Follow the latest from Israel-Gaza

Hundreds of Palestinians were forced to flee Gaza city's Shujaiya neighbourhood on Saturday after the Israeli army issued a displacement order for the area, the first to hit the city in some time.

The army ordered residents of the eastern neighbourhood to flee to central and southern parts of the city before Israeli shelling on the area.

The official Wafa news agency published images of civilians fleeing through streets already largely destroyed in Israeli attacks, carrying only blankets and basic belongings through the remains of bombed-out buildings.

Many were forced to flee in the dark, with residents sharing video footage of women and children using phone torches to escape.

While Israel has maintained a siege on northern Gaza, this is the first eviction order issued for the Gaza city area in several weeks. The Israeli military says it is targeting members of the militant group Hamas, whose attack on Israel on October 7 last year triggered the war.

Hamas said on Sunday that one of the hostages seized during that attack had been killed in an Israeli air strike on northern Gaza, and that another had been injured. The Israeli army said it was looking into the claim. Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups are believed to still be holding about 100 hostages, of whom 35 have officially been declared dead.

Israeli attacks continued across Gaza overnight, injuring several medical personnel in an air strike on oxygen generators at Beit Lahia's Kamal Adwan Hospital.

Hussam Abu Safiyeh, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, is treated by colleagues for his injuries after an Israeli strike on the hospital compound. AFP

Hospital Director Hussam Abu Safiyeh was among the wounded and spoke to the press from a hospital bed as doctors tended to his injured leg.

“These people, they target everyone, but I swear this will not stop us from continuing our humanitarian work,” he said in a video shared online. “We will keep on providing this service no matter what it costs us.

“I was injured in my place of work, and it was an honour to be injured in this place. My blood isn't better or any more precious than the blood of my staff and the rest of our people.”

The medical centre has been repeatedly struck by Israeli forces, who arrested most of its medical staff in a raid last month, leaving wounded Palestinians with few options for life-saving treatment.

Gaza's Health Ministry has warned attacks on the hospital constitute a “death sentence” for wounded civilians, with remaining staff only able to administer basic first aid to people injured in Israeli attacks.

On Sunday morning, at least seven people were killed in strikes in the central Bureij and Al Maghazi refugee camps, according to Wafa.

A girl, 11, and her sister, 12, were among four killed in the strike on Al Bureij camp, which destroyed a three-storey building in the middle of the night.

Their mother and two sisters were seriously wounded in the strike, father Abdul Salam Abu Al Nahl told the state news agency Wafa. The family had fled to the area after being displaced from Al Shati refugee camp, near Gaza city, several months ago, he said.

Several people were also wounded in Israeli attacks on the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah.

Authorities have repeatedly warned of no safe place remaining for civilians in Gaza, where more than 44,200 people have been killed since the war began last October. Gaza's Health Ministry said on Sunday that the toll included 35 people killed in the previous 24 hours.

A humanitarian crisis also threatens to worsen as winter approaches and Israel continues to block aid deliveries into the enclave.

About a third of 129 planned humanitarian missions were allowed into Gaza over the past week, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Friday.

“The rest were either denied, impeded or cancelled due to security or logistical reasons,” he added.

“As winter nears, Palestinians across the Gaza Strip are in dire need of adequate shelter to protect them from the rain and cold.”

Mr Dujarric said that UN partners were distributing tents and shelters as quickly as possible, but this is only a fraction of what is needed in the area, with hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians living in makeshift sites and damaged buildings.