Gaza’s civil defense agency and eyewitnesses yesterday reported Israeli shelling in the central city of Deir al-Balah, after the military warned of imminent action in an area where it had not previously operated.
The Israeli military on Sunday ordered those in the central Gaza area to leave immediately as it was expanding operations, including “in an area where it has not operated before” in more than 21 months of war.
Between 50,000 and 80,000 people were in the area when the evacuation order was issued, according to initial estimates from the UN, with whole families seen carrying what few belongings they had on donkey carts heading south.
Photo: Reuters
Deir al-Balah resident Abdullah Abu Saleem, 48, said that “during the night, we heard huge and powerful explosions shaking the area as if it were an earthquake.”
He said that this was “due to artillery shelling in the south-central part of Deir al-Balah and the southeastern area.”
“We are extremely worried and fearful that the army is planning a ground operation in Deir al-Balah and the central camps, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are sheltering,” he added.
Gaza civil defense agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that “we received calls from several families trapped in the al-Baraka area of Deir al-Balah due to shelling by Israeli tanks.”
“There are a number of wounded, but no one can reach the area to evacuate them,” he said.
The Israeli military did not provide immediate comment when contacted.
Hamdi Abu Mughseeb, 50, said that he and his family had fled northward from their tent south of Deir al-Balah at dawn following a night of intense artillery shelling, which he said was “still ongoing.”
“We saw tanks advancing over a kilometer from the Khan Yunis direction toward the southeast of Deir al-Balah,” he said. “There is no safe place anywhere in the Gaza Strip... I don’t know where we can go.”
Earlier on Sunday, the Gaza civil defense agency said that Israeli forces opened fire on crowds of Palestinians trying to collect humanitarian aid, killing 93 people and wounding dozens more.
Eighty were killed as truckloads of aid arrived in the north, while nine others were reportedly shot near an aid point close to Rafah in the south, where dozens of people lost their lives just 24 hours earlier.
Four were killed near another aid site in Khan Yunis, Basal said.
The UN World Food Programme said its 25-truck convoy carrying food aid “encountered massive crowds of hungry civilians which came under gunfire” near Gaza City, soon after it crossed from Israel and cleared checkpoints.
Israel’s military disputed the death toll and said soldiers had fired warning shots “to remove an immediate threat posed to them” as thousands gathered near Gaza City.
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