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Dozens of bodies have been found inside Gaza City in the wake of the Israeli military pulling out of a number of districts, Palestinian officials have said, as part of an offensive that had already forced tens of thousands to flee.
The Israeli military issued a sweeping instruction for the entire population in Gaza City – in northern Gaza – to evacuate south earlier this week, in a directive the United Nations said would only “fuel mass suffering for Palestinian families”. The assault, which began in late June, has sent some 80,000 people fleeing the area.
Gaza’s civil defence organisation told the AFP news agency that about 40 bodies have been found in an initial search of two Gaza City districts after Israeli troops pulled out of the area. Workers say they continue to recover the dead from destroyed streets and buildings.
“We constantly see bombardment. Every day we see it, today I felt it shake my house. My bathroom window came down on me three days ago,” a mother-of-three who wished not to be named for fear of reprisals told The Independent from her home in the al-Shati neighbourhood, known as Beach camp.
Dr Mohammed Salha, acting director of Al-Awda Hospital, told charity ActionAid in a voice note: “We do not know how long the [Israeli forces] will remain in Gaza City and the number of casualties we will receive at Al-Awda Hospital. Since this morning, [Friday] [we] received 12 injured people and one person who has been killed.”
Israel’s military said it had found drones and other weaponry in what is called a Hamas combat complex inside the former headquarters for the UN Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA in Gaza City and had evacuated civilians from the area before attacking.
“The troops engaged in close-quarters combat with terrorist cells that had fortified themselves inside the UNRWA compound,” it said, adding that it had also found an important Hamas tunnel nearby and weapons production under a university building.
The war in Gaza was triggered by a Hamas attack inside southern Israel during which aound 1,200 people were killed and another 250 were taken hostage according to Israeli totals. In response, Israel launched an air and ground offensive and a blockade, which health officials in the Hamas-run strip say has killed more then 38,000 people.
Home to more than a quarter of Gaza’s residents before the war, Gaza City was largely razed to the ground in late 2023, but hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had returned to homes in the ruins before Israel once again ordered them out. Much of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has been forced to leave their homes at least once during the war, with many now sheltering in the south of the strip. But some in Gaza City say they will not leave.
“We will not go anywhere, people are dying in the south and in the north, war is everywhere. There is nothing we can do but stay here and pray,” 17-year-old Lina told The Independent from the besieged city. She also said they don’t have enough money to evacuate as fuel or transportation will cost them “most” of their money.
The mother-of-three in Gaza City said: “My brother and father said they wish they died before leaving Gaza City. The south is hell. They might have food, we don’t, we are eating flour. But they are living in tents and we have the relative safety of our home. It’s comfortable even though it’s basic. it is something you cannot put into words when you have to leave your house, it is humiliating and degrading.”
Hamas said the heavy Israeli assault on Gaza City this week could ruin efforts over a ceasefire. Mediators Egypt and Qatar, backed by the United States, have been desperately trying to finalise a ceasefire deal that would free some of the Israelis still held hostage by Hamas in return for Palestinians held in jail by Israel.
