Fighting Uproots Thousands For Third Day In North Gaza
Date
6/29/2024 11:06:19 PM
(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Explosions, air strikes and gunfire rattled northern Gaza 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.
Explosions were reported from the Shujaiya area near Gaza City, and a resident saying bodies were seen on the streets.
The armed wings of both resistance movement Hamas and the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad said they were engaged in ongoing fighting with Israeli forces there.
The military reported two soldiers killed and two severely wounded in combat 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 conflict has also led to soaring tensions on Israel's northern border with Lebanon, leading Iran to warn of an "obliterating" war if Israel attacked Lebanon.
Israel's offensive has killed at least 37,834 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
The United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA estimated that "about 60,000 to 80,000 people were displaced" from the area this week.
Elsewhere, Gaza's civil defence agency 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 Israeli incursion.
The United Nations, in a report on Friday citing Gaza's health ministry, said "about 70% of health infrastructure has been destroyed".
The UN says most of Gaza's population is displaced, but the war's fallout has also uprooted people on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border, where Lebanon's Hezbollah movement and Israeli forces have engaged in near-daily exchanges of fire.
Such exchanges have escalated this month, alongside bellicose rhetoric.
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