CAIRO/GAZA: Palestinians in the relatively unscathed Al-Naser area of Gaza City were having to decide whether to stay or go on Thursday (Sep 11) after the Israeli military dropped leaflets warning that troops would take control of the western neighbourhood.
Israel has ordered the hundreds of thousands of people living in Gaza City to leave as it intensifies its all-out war on the Palestinian militant group Hamas, but with little safety, space and food in the rest of Gaza, people face dire choices.
“It has been almost two years, with no rest, no settling down, not even sleep,” said Ahmed Al-Dayeh, a father, as he and his family prepared to flee the city in a truck pulled by a motorcycle, laden with some of their belongings.
“Our life revolves around war,” he said. “We have to go from this area to that area. We can’t take it anymore, we are tired.”
DEADLY SEARCH FOR FOOD
Israeli strikes killed 34 people across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, according to medics and local health authorities, including 22 in Gaza City and 12 in the central and southern parts of the territory.
Seven of those killed were searching for food when they were hit, the Palestinian officials said.
Israeli ground troops had operated in parts of Al-Naser at the start of the war in October 2023, and the leaflets dropped late on Wednesday left residents fearful that tanks would soon advance to occupy the entire neighbourhood.
In the past week, Israeli forces have been operating in three Gaza City neighbourhoods further east – Shejaia, Zeitoun and Tuffah – and sent tanks briefly into Sheikh Radwan, which is adjacent to Al-Naser. The military said last Thursday it controlled 40 per cent of the city.
On Wednesday, the Israeli military said it struck 360 targets in Gaza in what it called an escalation of strikes that targeted “terrorist infrastructure, cameras, reconnaissance operations rooms, sniper positions, anti-tank missile launch sites, and command and control complexes”.
It added that in the coming days, it would intensify attacks in a focused manner to strike Hamas infrastructure, “disrupting its operational readiness, and reducing the threat to our forces in preparation for the next phases of the operation”.
