Israel orders evacuation of three neighborhoods in Gaza capital and movement west

The Israeli Army ordered the evacuation of the Tuffah, Old City and Daraj neighborhoods in Gaza City on Sunday, July 7.in the north of the enclave, according to what the spokesman for the armed forces for Arab media, Avichay Adraee, shared on the social network X.

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“For your safety, you must evacuate immediately to known shelters in western Gaza City.“the statement said, without specifying the location of these safe areas.

The army’s order puts these three districts in the centre and north of the capital on alert for a spike in the intensity of Israeli attacks, although they had already been subjected to bombings. Last Thursday, the Musa school, between Tuffah and Daraj, was attacked in which at least five people died.

These neighborhoods have become the focus of the Israeli offensive against Gaza City, as has been the case over the past week with the Shujaiya neighborhood, bordering Daraj and the Old City to the east.

In Shujaiya, the armed forces said they had found “large quantities of weapons” in the past week and destroyed dozens of buildings with booby traps, as well as killing militants in close-range fighting.

“In the encounters, seven armed terrorists were eliminated.“, said a military statement regarding one of the operations carried out.

The air force also bombed a school building in the Gaza capital on Sunday, claiming it was being used as a hiding place by militants.

According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, four people were killed in the attack on the centre, which was the Holy Family school in the western part of the capital and was home to many displaced people from the Israeli attacks.

The Israeli army is advancing its offensive in Gaza City towards the west while the country remains immersed in negotiations with Hamas to achieve a ceasefire that would allow the exchange of hostages (116 of those kidnapped on October 7 remain in the Strip) for Palestinian prisoners.

“I tell the families of prisoners in Gaza that the fate of their children has become a plaything in Netanyahu’s hands.“Hamas’s armed wing’s spokesman, Abu Obeida, told Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera.

According to Abu Obeida, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence on achieving the country’s war aims as a prerequisite for a final agreement is a way of satisfying “his personal victory” and his fixation with the government.

The spokesman for the al-Qassam Brigades said the group had recruited “thousands of new fighters” for the war, in response to the army’s claims that it had almost completely eliminated Hamas battalions in the south of the Palestinian enclave.

Since the war began, more than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 88,000 wounded by Israel’s offensive in Gaza, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry in the Strip.

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