(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
AFP
Gaza strip: Gaza's civil defence agency said on Sunday that Israeli air strikes in Jabaliya killed at least 17 people as Israeli forces said they had surrounded the area to prevent Hamas from regrouping.
Following a year of fighting after October 7, large swathes of Gaza have been reduced to rubble as the Israeli army aimed to completely destroy the strip.
But in recent months, troops have returned to several areas across the Palestinian territory where they had previously conducted operations, only to find the resistance regrouping.
The Israeli military said Sunday its forces surrounded the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza in response to indications that Hamas was rebuilding despite nearly a year of strikes and fighting.
"The troops of the 401st Brigade and the 460th Brigade have successfully encircled the area and are currently continuing to operate in the area," the military said in a statement on Sunday.
Israeli occupation army tanks drive in an area near Israel's southern border with the Gaza Strip on October 6, 2024. Photo by Menahem KAHANA / AFP.
It cited intelligence suggesting the presence of "terrorists" and "terror infrastructure" in the area of Jabaliya... as well as efforts by Hamas to rebuild its operational capabilities in the area".
Israeli aircraft struck dozens of "military targets" in support of ground troops, it said.
Gaza's civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said multiple strikes rocked Jabaliya overnight.
"There are 17 martyrs, including nine children, in Israeli air strikes in Jabaliya," he said.
Evacuation routes
AFPTV footage showed several bodies in blood-stained white shrouds laid out on the ground and some being carried away on stretchers for burial.
A Palestinian woman stands in front of the bodies of victims of an Israeli strike that targeted a mosque-turned-shelter in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, in the courtyard of the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital on October 6, 2024. Photo by BASHAR TALEB / AFP.
Residents said the Israeli military had targeted the area with heavy bombardment.
"The shelling is random and violent in multiple directions and we do not know where the shelling is coming from and we do not know where to go," Gaza resident Jameel al-Habibi told AFP.
Khaled al-Hawajri, a resident of northern Gaza, said the relentless air strikes reminded him of the "first days of the war".
"We couldn't leave the house. Anyone who tried to go out was targeted by the drones," Hawajri, 46, told AFP.
"Every now and then we are forced to evacuate the area, running without taking anything with us due to the intensity of the shelling."
"We are truly tired. This is the 10th time I have left my home... We don't know when or if we will ever return," Hawajri added.
Palestinian families arrive in Gaza City after evacuating their homes in the Jabalia area on October 6, 2024, after the Israeli army ordered people to evacuate the area north of Gaza. Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP.
Israeli forces have regularly targeted Jabaliya since the Gaza war began, displacing most residents.
The military said it was also expanding the humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi along the coastline in southern Gaza.
Gaza's civil defence agency meanwhile said an Israeli air strike on a mosque-turned-shelter on Sunday in central Deir al-Balah killed 26 people. Israel's military said it had targeted "militants."
Palestinians check the rubble of a mosque-turned-shelter in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, targeted by an Israeli strike during the night of October 6, 2024. Photo by BASHAR TALEB / AFP.
"The number of martyrs brought to hospitals as a result of the occupation's targeting of displaced people in the Ibn Rushd school and Al Aqsa Martyrs mosque reached 26, with several more wounded," a health ministry statement said.
Israel's military offensive has killed at least 41,870 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures provided by the territory's health ministry and described as reliable by the UN.
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