Israeli forces widened their raid into northern Gaza and tanks reached the north edge of Gaza City, pounding some districts of the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood and forcing many families to leave their homes, residents said.
Residents said Israeli forces had effectively isolated Beit Hanoun, Jabaliya and Beit Lahiya in the far north of the enclave from Gaza City, blocking access between the two areas except upon permission for families willing to heed evacuation orders and leave the three towns.
Nine days into a major Israeli operation in northern Gaza, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said Israeli strikes had killed more than 300 Palestinians there. It said Israel’s bombardment of civilian houses and displacement shelters was intended to force residents to leave Gaza once and for all, which Israel denies.
Gaza’s health ministry says dozens of people have been confirmed killed in the assaults on northern areas, with many dozens of others feared dead on roads and under the rubble of houses beyond the reach of medical teams. Later in the day, Israeli tank shelling killed at least 22 Palestinians at a school sheltering displaced families in Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, medics said.
The Gaza government media office said at least 15 children and women were among those killed in the school. It added that 80 other people were wounded.
Hours earlier an Israeli air strike killed five children in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City. The Palestinian official news agency Wafa and Hamas media said the children were playing near a cafe when they were killed by a missile fired from an Israeli drone.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the two reports.
“What’s happening in northern Gaza is terrifying beyond words,” acting UN aid chief Joyce Msuya said in a post on social media platform X.
“Attacks by Israeli forces are intensifying. Hospitals are forced to evacuate their patients. Essential supplies running out. People forcibly displaced, cut off from aid, left to starve. The atrocities must end,” she said.
While the main assault is on the north, Israel is also striking other areas across the Gaza Strip. The health ministry reported at least 34 people killed so far yesterday.
Many Jabaliya residents posted on social media platforms: “We will not leave, we die, and we don’t leave.” The northern part of Gaza, home to well over half the territory’s 2.3 million people, was bombed to rubble in the first phase of Israel’s assault on the territory a year ago, after the October 7 attacks on Israeli towns by Hamas. After a year of Israeli assaults that killed 42,000 Palestinians, hundreds of thousands of residents have come back to ruined northern areas.
Israel sent troops back more than a week ago to root out fighters it said were regrouping for more attacks. Hamas denies fighters operate among civilians.
The escalation in northern Gaza has taken place alongside a huge Israeli air assault and ground campaign on a separate front in southern Lebanon against Hizbollah, which like Hamas is an ally of Iran.
“As the world is focused on Lebanon and possible Israeli strike against Iran, Israel is wiping out Jabaliya,” said Nasser, a resident of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip.
“The occupation is blowing up roads and destroying residential districts. People also don’t find anything to eat, they are trapped inside their homes, fearing bombs could fall onto their heads,” he told Reuters via a chat app.
The Israeli military said that forces operating throughout the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours had attacked about 40 targets and killed dozens of fighters.
The armed wings of Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and smaller other factions said their fighters attacked Israeli forces in Jabaliya and nearby areas with anti-tank rockets.
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