By Hosni Nedim
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - The Israeli military intensified its ground and air offensives across all governorates of the Gaza Strip on Saturday.
- Ground operations
Israeli army spokesperson Avichai Adraee urged residents of neighborhoods he identified as "east of Rafah" – although they are situated in the city center – to promptly relocate to "the expanded humanitarian zone in Al-Mawasi," located southwest of the strip.
It is clear that the army wants to gather the displaced Palestinians in Rafah in the Al-Mawasi area.
Al-Mawasi, situated along the Mediterranean coast, spans 12 kilometers in length and one kilometer in width, stretching from Deir Al-Balah in the north, through the Khan Yunis Governorate in the south, to the outskirts of Rafah in the far south.
The region is predominantly non-residential, characterized by a lack of infrastructure.
Most of the land is divided into agricultural areas or sand-covered greenhouses.
Meanwhile, clashes between Palestinian fighters and Israeli forces penetrating east of Rafah have been taking place for days on an intermittent basis, according to local Palestinian sources.
Witnesses reported volleys of gunfire and shelling east of Rafah as well as plumes of black smoke rising from the Rafah land crossing.
On Friday, the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, announced that it had carried out a series of attacks against Israeli soldiers and military vehicles east of Rafah prompting some of them to retreat hundreds of meters towards the east in the Saad Sayel Barracks area.
The Israeli military also demanded the immediate evacuation of all residents and displaced individuals from various areas in the northern Gaza Strip. Palestinians were instructed to seek refuge in designated areas west of Gaza City.
The regions west of the city have been extensively damaged by military operations since the onset of the conflict seven months ago.
Simultaneous with the evacuation orders, Israeli troops initiated a sudden intrusion into the Al-Farahin region, located east of the town of Abasan Al-Kabira and east of Khan Yunis city, according to eyewitnesses.
Witnesses told Anadolu that the army is carrying out extensive bulldozing operations in the areas they have penetrated.
Israeli forces have persisted since Thursday in their invasion of the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood and regions within the Al-Sabra and Tal Al-Hawa neighborhoods, situated south of Gaza City.
Eyewitnesses and Palestinian medical sources reported incessant bombings in these areas, causing numerous fatalities, injuries and substantial material damage.
Eyewitnesses reported confrontations on Friday between Israeli forces and members of the Palestinian resistance in this region.
Al-Qassam brigades announced on Friday that its fighters “sniped a Zionist soldier south of the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza City,” in addition to carrying out several attacks with multiple rockets and mortar shells against Israeli forces in the area.
- Aerial bombardment
Israeli warplanes have been pounding all governorates of the Gaza Strip since Friday night, resulting in dozens of fatalities and injuries.
Medical sources at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the city of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip told Anadolu that at least 21 Palestinians were killed and dozens others were injured as a result of the Israeli attacks in the central governorate.
Eyewitnesses reported that the Israeli airstrikes struck a residence belonging to the Al-Khatib family in the town of Al-Zawaida, killing nine Palestinians, including five children and three women, and injuring several others.
An Israeli airstrike struck a residence belonging to the Abed family in Al-Maghazi camp, leading to the killing of five Palestinians, including four women, and leaving several others wounded.
At least four Palestinians were killed and several others were injured in an Israeli airstrike targeting the residence of the Al-Louh family in the town of Al-Masdar in the northeast of the Central Governorate.
Two Palestinians were killed in another Israeli airstrike on the residence of the Abdel-Jawad family in Al-Maghazi camp.
Additional fatalities occurred in other Israeli airstrikes targeting residences in the Al-Zawaida vicinity.
In the northern Gaza Strip, at least seven Palestinians were killed and several others were injured in an Israeli bombing that targeted the Siam family's residence in the vicinity of Al-Shamaa Mosque in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of the Gaza city, medical sources at the Baptist Hospital told Anadolu.
A number of Palestinians were also killed and injured as a result of a bombing that targeted the Okasha family house in the Al-Qasaib neighborhood in Jabalia camp.
Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes targeted residential areas in the town of Beit Lahia, resulting in a number of casualties, according to eyewitnesses.
Medical sources at Kamal Adwan Hospital informed Anadolu that six Palestinians were killed and several others wounded due to Israeli airstrikes on the northern Gaza Strip early Saturday morning.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip in retaliation for an Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border attack by Hamas which killed around 1,200 people.
Nearly 35,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have since been killed, and over 78,600 others injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Seven months into the conflict, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January said it is "plausible" that Tel Aviv is committing genocide in Gaza, ordering it to stop such acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
* Writing by Ikram Kouachi