Fighting for third day in north Gaza as thousands displaced

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories — Explosions, air strikes and gunfire rattled northern Gaza on Saturday, the third day of an Israeli military operation that has uprooted tens of thousands of Palestinians and compounded what the UN called "unbearable" living conditions in the territory.

An AFP correspondent reported ongoing explosions from the Shujaiya area near Gaza City, with a resident saying bodies were visible on the streets.

The armed wings of both Hamas and the Palestinian fighter group Islamic Jihad said on Saturday they were engaged in ongoing fighting with Israeli forces in the area.

Israel's military, meanwhile, said its operations were continuing in Shujaiya where fighting "above and below the ground" left a "large number" of fighters dead.

A resurgence of fighting in the area comes months after Israel had declared the command structure of Hamas fighters dismantled in northern Gaza.

Last Sunday Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the "intense phase" of the war was winding down after almost nine months, but experts see a potentially prolonged next phase.

The Gaza war has also led to soaring tensions on Israel's northern border with Lebanon, leading Iran on Saturday to warn of an "obliterating" war if Israel attacked Lebanon.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,834 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. It reported at least 69 deaths over the previous 48 hours.

Fleeing empty-handed

Mohammed Harara, 30, said he and his family, young and old, felt as though they would become part of that toll.

He said they fled from their home in Shujaiya with nothing, “due to the bombardment by Israeli planes, tanks and drones” that they barely survived.

“We couldn’t carry anything from the house. We left the food, flour, canned goods, mattresses, and blankets,” Harara said.

Israel’s military on Friday said it was conducting “targeted raids” backed by air strikes against Hamas militants in the Shujaiya area.

The United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA estimated that “about 60,000 to 80,000 people were displaced” from the area this week.

AFPTV images on Saturday showed men moving belongings on a donkey cart. Some people were pushed in wheelchairs. Children walked with backpacks past piles of dusty debris.

“I saw a tank in front of the Shuhada mosque firing” at targets, said Abdelkareem Al Mamluk. “There were martyrs in the street.”

Elsewhere in the coastal territory, the civil defence agency on Saturday said four bodies were pulled from an apartment after an Israeli strike in the central region.

Further south, in the Rafah area, witnesses reported dead and wounded after a new incursion by Israeli troops.

Tarek Qandeel, director of the medical centre in Al Maghazi, central Gaza, said the facility was seriously damaged in the bombing of a neighbouring house, making it the latest Gaza medical facility affected by the war.

The United Nations, in a report on Friday that cited Gaza’s health ministry, said “about 70 per cent of health infrastructure has been destroyed”.

Separately, a UN spokeswoman, Louise Wateridge, said by video-link that she had just returned to central Gaza after four weeks outside the territory.

“It’s really unbearable,” she said, describing a “significantly deteriorated” situation.

“There’s no water there, there’s no sanitation, there’s no food,” and people are returning to live in “empty shells” of buildings.

In the absence of bathrooms they are “relieving themselves anywhere they can”, Wateridge said.

The UN says most of Gaza’s population is displaced.