SPECIAL REPORTS PALESTINE

FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA - FREE PALESTINE
with special thanks to citizen-reporter 'Biba' (Algeria)
July wk1 P3 -- July wk1 P2 -- July wk1 -- June wk4 P3 --  June wk4 P2 --  June wk4 -- June wk3 P2 -- Click here for an overview by week in 2024
 

July 4 - 2, 2024 <<Gazan orphans face suffering beyond territory's borders... and <<Hamas faces growing public dissent as Gaza war erodes support... and <<Thousands scramble for safety as Israel launches airstrike on Rafah... and <<Fears of spread of disease as rotting garbage piles up in Gaza... and <<Israel's Netanyahu should leave 'immediately', former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon says... and <<Ex-officials say Gaza policy has put US at risk... and <<Israel carries out deadly strikes on southern Gaza after issuing evacuation order... and more news but most with a 'give way or go away' yell!

July 2 - June 30, 2024 <<Israel frees director of Gaza hospital, sparking internal political backlash... and <<Renewed Israeli orders to evacuate Khan Younis signal likely attack on Gazan city... and <<Anatomy of an Israeli disinformation campaign... and <<Another journalist killed in Israeli attack on Gaza... and <<More wounded Palestinians tell BBC the Israeli army forced them on to jeep... and <<Fighting rages in Gaza City's Shujaiya district for fourth day... and more news but most with a 'give way or go away' yell!

June 28, 2024 Food for thought by Gino d'Artali: During WW2 hitler had 2 goals: the genocide of the jews and to completely scorch Germany when he realized the so-called 'third reich' was to be a fata morgana. History repeats itself where netanyahu has the same goals be it that he doesn't realise that scorching Gaza will lead to his fata morgana named israel that will be impossible to live too 'cause one cannot live on ashes no matter how you name it. False or fact? Read all about it here: <<Urbicide: 'Even if Israel stops bombing Gaza tomorrow, it will be impossible to live there'...   Click here to go throughout June and earler, 2024

June 14, 2024 Palestinian-Jordanian journalist Hiba Abu Taha sentenced to one year in prison

Related news: July 2 2024: Arrests of Palestinian journalists since start of Israel-Gaza war June 25 - 23, 2024: Press' vests do not protect them and related stories   Click here for earlier stories/news

May 23, 2024 In commemoration of Roshdi Sarraj and tribute to Shrouq Al Aila

 
When one hurts or kills a women
one hurts or kills hummanity and is an antrocitie.
Gino d'Artali
and: My mother (1931-1997) always said to me <Mi figlio, non esistono notizie <vecchie> perche puoi imparare qualcosa da qualsiasi notizia.> Translated: <My son, there is no such thing as so called 'old' news because you can learn something from any news.>
Gianna d'Artali.

Le Monde - July 4, 2024 - By Laure Stephan (Amman, Beirut special correspondent)
<<Gazan orphans face suffering beyond territory's borders
Between 15,000 and 25,000 children have lost at least one parent, according to estimates by Palestinian civil society, as aid organizations struggle to help them find foster families. Palestinian children in a camp in the Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis, home to orphans, widows and displaced divorced women, April 25, 2024. Five-year-old Adam Afana, a war-wounded child evacuated to Beirut, embodies a crisis that is likely to haunt Gaza for years to come. The exponential increase of orphans in the territory has created a profound rift in the family and social fabric of the Palestinian enclave. Mohamed, his father, succumbed to his wounds a few days after the Israeli bombardment that wiped out the Afana family. His seriously wounded mother, Chérine, is in Egypt. There are no confirmed statistics of orphans in Gaza at this stage, but Palestinian civil society estimates put the number of young Gazans who have lost one or both parents at between 15,000 and 25,000. In February, UNICEF estimated that at least 17,000 children were unaccompanied or separated from their parents - whether dead, hospitalized or detained. In April, another UN agency, UN Women, put the number of motherless children at 19,000. Adam's left arm was injured and treated at the American Hospital in Beirut thanks to the foundation set up by British-Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah. To accompany Adam to Lebanon, it was necessary to find a surviving uncle: Eid Afana, who was in Egypt, not Gaza, when the family was killed. In front of journalists, Adam recounted with an emotional voice, how the Afana family, residents of the Jabaliya camp in the north of the Gaza Strip, survived a first strike on October 10, before a second, on October 29, killed some of them. Adam's sister was killed instantly, as were his maternal grandmother, an aunt and cousins. The boy's father died in the emergency room. Risking amputation, having been treated with makeshift means in Gaza hospitals, Adam joined his uncle Eid in Egypt in December, before reaching Beirut in May.
More than 1,500 amputees
The ongoing Israeli offensive in Gaza has been particularly cruel to minors, who make up 47% of the population of the enclave. At least 14,000 of them have been killed since October 2023, according to the local Hamas-administered Ministry of Health, out of a total of nearly 38,000 dead. More than 1,500 have had at least one limb amputated, according to Viviane Khalaf of the Palestine Children's Relief Fund. Added to these figures are the two or even three tens of thousands of orphans and lone children. These projections are out of all proportion to what the enclave has seen during previous offensives. The conflicts between Hamas and Israel of 2008-2009 (three weeks) and 2014 (50 days) produced some 4,000 war orphans, recalled Tareq Emtairah, director of the Palestinian development organization Taawon, which has supported the education of these minors. At least 20 of them were killed by the current bombardments, and many more are missing.
Read more here:
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/07/04/gazan-orphans-face-suffering-beyond-territory-s-borders_6676664_4.html

BBC - July 4, 2024 - By Lucy Williamson & Rushdi Aboualouf, BBC Middle East correspondent & Gaza correspondent
<<Hamas faces growing public dissent as Gaza war erodes support
A man sits inside a building damaged by Israeli strikes conducted during an operation to rescue four hostages held in Nuseirat refugee camp last month. The man in the video is beside himself, a mask of anguish radiating through his bloodied face. <I am an academic doctor,> he says, <I had a good life, but we have a filthy [Hamas] leadership. They got used to our bloodshed, may God curse them! They are scum!> The video - unthinkable before the Gaza war - was filmed outside a hospital, inundated with hundreds of Palestinian casualties after an Israeli operation to free hostages from central Gaza last month.
Warning: Graphic image
Seconds before the video ends, he turns to the crowd. <I'm one of you,> he says, <but you are a cowardly people. We could have avoided this attack!> The video went viral. And it's not the only one. UGC In a viral video, an injured man in Gaza was filmed attacking the Hamas leadership UGC
An injured man in Gaza denounced the Hamas leadership's actions in a video shared on social media last month. Open criticism of Hamas has been growing in Gaza, both on the streets and online. Some have publicly criticised Hamas for hiding the hostages in apartments near a busy marketplace, or for firing rockets from civilian areas. Residents have told the BBC that swearing and cursing against the Hamas leadership is now common in the markets, and that some drivers of donkey carts have even nicknamed their animals after the Hamas leader in Gaza - Yahya Sinwar - urging the donkeys forward with shouts of <Yallah, Sinwar!> <People say things like, 'Hamas has destroyed us' or even call on God to take their lives,> one man said. <They ask what the 7 October attacks were for - some say they were a gift to Israel.> Some are even urging their leaders to agree a ceasefire with Israel. There are still those in Gaza fiercely loyal to Hamas and after years of repressive control, it's difficult to know how far the group is losing support, or how far existing opponents feel more able to speak their mind. But even some on the group's own payroll are wavering. One senior Hamas government employee told the BBC that the Hamas attacks were <a crazy, uncalculated leap>. He asked that we concealed his identity. <I know from my work with the Hamas government that it prepared well for the attack militarily, but it neglected the home front,> he said.
<They did not build any safe shelters for people, they did not reserve enough food, fuel and medical supplies. If my family and I survive this war, I will leave Gaza, the first chance I get.> There was opposition to Hamas long before the war, though much of it remained hidden for fear of reprisals.
The last time Palestinian elections were held, in 2006, in the party list vote Gazans voted for Hamas in 15 out of 24 seats in the territory - in the other nine districts, voters chose a different party. A year later, Hamas violently ejected Palestinian Authority forces from Gaza causing a bitter rift with the rival Fatah movement, and took over the running of the whole Gaza Strip. Ameen Abed, a political activist, said he had been arrested many times for speaking out against Hamas before the war, but said - nine months on - dissent was becoming more common there. <In Gaza, most people criticise what Hamas has done,> he said. <They see children living in tents, and insulting their leaders has become routine. But it has a lot of support among those outside Gaza's border, who are sitting under air conditioners in their comfortable homes, who have not lost a child, a home, a future, a leg.> Desperation and war are eroding social structures in Gaza, and Hamas control is not what it was. Four-fifths of Gaza's population is displaced, often moving between temporary shelters. And law and order has broken down in places, partly as a result of Israel's policy of targeting Gaza's security forces - not just the official Hamas internal security service, but also the community police responsible for street crime. As control has waned, criminal gangs have thrived, looting neighbourhoods and aid convoys; and private security companies - some run by powerful local families - have emerged.
The UN says more than 1.9 million Palestinians have been displaced across Gaza
One staff member from an aid organisation operating in Gaza described <absolute chaos at street level> and <a state of anarchy>, saying that civilian order had completely broken down as a result of the Israeli policy. Israel's prime minister has repeatedly vowed to continue the war until Hamas's military and governing capabilities are destroyed. But some aid agencies - in both northern and south areas of Gaza - have also reported regular checks on their activities by local Hamas officials, and videos are frequently circulated of unofficial Hamas security forces shooting and beating those caught looting. One well-placed source told the BBC that dozens of people had been killed by Hamas in bloody score-settling with other local groups, after Israeli troops withdrew from one area. Fear of criticising Gaza's leaders might have lessened, but it hasn't gone, so it is still hard to accurately gauge, beyond individual testimony, how far support for the group is shifting. Some, like 26-year-old Jihad Talab, still strongly support Hamas. Displaced from the Zeitoun area of Gaza City with his wife, daughter and mother, and now sheltering in Deir al Balah, he said the group was not responsible for their suffering. <We must support [Hamas] because it's the one working on the ground, the one who understands the battle - not you or I,> he said. <Empty accusations only serve the Occupation [Israel]. We'll support it until our last breath.> After almost nine months of war, on aid worker said Gaza was in a <state of anarchy> A regular poll carried out by a West Bank-based think tank, the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research, suggests that most people in Gaza still blame Israel and its allies for the war, rather than Hamas. The latest survey in June found that almost two-thirds of Gazan respondents were satisfied with Hamas - a rise of 12 points from December - and that just around half would still prefer Hamas to run Gaza after the war ends, over any other option. These results differ from several accounts given to the BBC, including from a senior Hamas official who privately acknowledged that they were losing support as a result of the war. These glimpses through chinks in the media blockade around Gaza can never give a full assessment of the situation. International journalists are barred by Israel and Egypt from reporting on the situation there first-hand.
What is clear is that Hamas remains very sensitive to public opinion.
Strikingly similar messages regularly appear on certain social media platforms to justify its actions, often apparently in response to criticism at home.
A source familiar with Hamas told the BBC there was an organised international network to co-ordinate social media messaging for the group.
After Israeli families released a video showing the moment female soldiers were kidnapped by Hamas units on 7 October, some in Gaza questioned whether targeting women during war was in line with Islamic teaching. In response, several pro-Hamas social media accounts put out similar messages insisting that soldiers - male or female - were justified military targets, and saying the unit had been involved in shooting Gazan protestors during demonstrations six years ago. Criticism of Hamas is growing sharper, and long-buried divisions over Hamas rule in Gaza are becoming clear. Out of the destruction left by Israel's battle with Hamas, a new war is emerging: a battle for control of public opinion within Gaza itself.>>
Source incl. video:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0vewvp14zdo

France 25 - July 4, 2024 - by NEWS WIRES
<<Israel 'evaluating' Hamas 'ideas' for ceasefire in Gaza
Israel has said it is <evaluating> new comments put forward by Palestinian group Hamas aimed at bringing about a long-awaited ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. The Hamas militant group said Wednesday it has sent new <ideas> to Qatari mediators aimed at ending the nearly nine-month Gaza war with Israel. Israel confirmed that it was <evaluating> Hamas <comments> on a deal to free its hostages in the Palestinian territory and would reply.
With the death toll mounting and conditions worsening daily for Gazans, both sides are under increased international pressure to agree a ceasefire -- more recently based on a roadmap pushed by US President Joe Biden. Hamas has demanded <a permanent ceasefire and complete withdrawal> of Israeli troops from Gaza. Israel says there can be no halt to hostilities until Hamas releases all hostages seized during the October 7 attacks. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also repeatedly vowed that Israel's Gaza campaign will not end until Hamas's military and governing capabilities are destroyed. Qatar, working closely with the United States, has been leading mediation efforts. <We exchanged some ideas with the mediator brothers with the aim of stopping the aggression against our Palestinian people,> a Hamas statement said. Netanyahu's office and the Mossad intelligence service confirmed the new approach almost straight away.
Bridging war gaps
<The hostages deal mediators have conveyed to the negotiating team Hamas' remarks on the outline of the hostages deal. Israel is evaluating the remarks and will convey its reply to the mediators,> said an Israeli statement. According to a source with knowledge of the talks, <the Qataris, in coordination with the United States, have been engaging with Hamas and Israel over the past weeks in an attempt to bridge the remaining gaps.>
Biden said the plan he proposed on May 31 originated with Israel. It includes a six-week ceasefire, a hostage-prisoner exchange and Gaza's reconstruction. It would be the first truce since a week-long pause in fighting in November that saw more than 100 hostages freed and Palestinians released from Israeli jails. The war started with the October 7 attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures. Hamas militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza including 42 the army says are dead. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,953 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. On top of international criticism, Netanyahu faces intense domestic pressure to secure the release of remaining hostages, as well as having to prepare for potential conflict with Hezbollah on the Lebanon front. He has said military action is the best way to put pressure on Hamas however. The New York Times this week quoted Israeli security officials as saying top generals see a truce as the best way to secure the release of remaining hostages, even if Israel's war goals are not all met. Netanyahu rejected the report and vowed Israel would not give in to the <winds of defeatism>. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed peace efforts last week in Washington with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. While there are signs of tensions between the Israeli prime minister and US president, Netanyahu is to speak to the two houses of the US Congress at a session scheduled for July 24.
(AFP)>>
Source incl. video:
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20240703-israel-evaluating-hamas-ideas-for-ceasefire-in-gaza

France 25 - July 4, 2024 - Video by: Emerald MAXWELL
<<Thousands scramble for safety as Israel launches airstrike on Rafah
Fierce fighting in Gaza kills 7, only 10 days after Israel says 'intense' part of war was over.>>
Source incl. video:
https://www.france24.com/en/video/20240703-thousands-scramble-for-safety-as-israel-launches-airstrike-on-rafah

Sky News - July 3, 2024 - by Alistair Bunkall - Middle East correspondent
<<Newborn babies now have little chance of survival in Gaza, hospital director warns
Mothers are so malnourished they cannot breastfeed, so their babies are dying - literally starving to death - because they cannot get the vital nutrition they desperately need. The chances of a newborn baby surviving in Gaza now are not good. On the malnutrition ward at The Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, babies only days old and often premature, fight for their lives. Mothers are so malnourished themselves that they cannot breastfeed, and so babies are dying, literally starving to death, because they cannot get the vital nutrition that newborns need. <Within two weeks, we detected more than 250 patients of malnutrition,> explains Dr Hassam Abu Safah, the hospital's director. <This was all detected in one hospital, our hospital, which means the number will most likely increase in the coming days. We ask the world to allow the entry of food and the entry of clear water.> The body of a baby that didn't pull through lies in a hospital incubator, awaiting burial. She was born two months premature because her mother was so exhausted. Too soon for her parents to even name her. Her tiny body is now wrapped in a green shroud. Another struggles for each breath, the bones of her exposed rib cage heave up and down with the little strength she has to keep living. Their nappies dwarf their skeletal bodies. The Rafah border crossing with Egypt remains closed because the Israel Defence Forces continues to occupy and operate in the land around it. The US military pier has paused operations yet again, because of rough seas, and much of the aid it has delivered is yet to reach the Gazans who need it. Israel has released images of aid stacked up on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing and said it is the UN's fault for not collecting it, but the UN has said law and order has broken down in Gaza and warned Israel it is close to suspending its operations. Israel recently announced that a new power cable has been connected to a desalination plant run by UNICEF in Gaza. The plant provides water to the Khan Yunis area and the move is designed to prevent an outbreak of disease during the summer months. It will only provide minimal respite though. Much of Gaza is now just a network of streets and alleys, lined by high mounds of rubble and the shells of homes and shops. It is uninhabitable. Palestinians desperate for food amid aid crisis Most people have now moved to humanitarian zones, living in tents or temporary structures. Fuel is scarce, so donkey and cart is the best way to get around if you're lucky. Otherwise, it's on foot. Across Gaza, children queue with their pans, or plastic buckets, patiently waiting for the daily handout of food. Meals are often plain rice or some soup. A couple of scoops will have to feed the whole family. Some of the children thrust their bowls to the front, desperate not to miss out. When it's almost all gone, they scrape what they can from the bottom. Nothing can go to waste. It's well into the summer here now, temperatures are regularly into the mid or high-30s adding to the misery for hundreds of thousands who have to live under canvas and with little shade. Old, or young, war has little respect for age, and it is always the most vulnerable who suffer the most.>>
Source incl. video:
https://news.sky.com/story/newborn-babies-now-have-little-chance-of-survival-in-gaza-hospital-director-warns-13162972

France 25 - July 3, 2024 - By: Marc Perelman: TETE À TETE
<<Fears of spread of disease as rotting garbage piles up in Gaza
Waste and sewage have accumulated in central Gaza, leaving displaced people at risk of disease as already cramped conditions are made worse by mounds of rotting garbage, with UN officials warning of an unfolding sanitation crisis.>>
Source incl. video:
https://www.france24.com/en/video/20240703-fears-of-spread-of-disease-as-rotting-garbage-piles-up-in-gaza

France 25 - July 3, 2024 - By: Marc Perelman: TETE À TETE
<<Israel's Netanyahu should leave 'immediately', former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon says
FRANCE 24 spoke to Ami Ayalon, who was the head of Israel's internal security agency, the Shin Bet, from 1996 to 2000. <As long as he (Binyamin Netanyahu) is prime minister, we shall not have peace [and] security,> Ayalon said. The former spy chief said he believes <most of the people who voted for him (Netanyahu) want him to leave his position> and that <he should do it immediately>. Ayalon, who is also a former commander-in-chief of the Israeli navy, called for an end to the war in Gaza, saying that there was no military solution possible. He added that everything should be done in order to avoid a second front in Lebanon. He warned: <Unless we shall use diplomacy and political process, we shall not achieve victory [in Gaza]>.>>
Source incl. video:
https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/t%C3%AAte-%C3%A0-t%C3%AAte/20240703-israel-s-netanyahu-should-leave-immediately-former-shin-bet-chief-ami-ayalon-says

France 25 - July 3, 2024 - by AFP
<<Five Palestinians killed in Israeli raids in West Bank
Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Israeli forces killed five Palestinians in two military operations in the occupied West Bank where tensions have risen because of the Gaza war, Palestinian and Israeli sources said Wednesday. One night-time air strike killed four men at a refugee camp near the town of Tulkarm, which has seen a surge in violence as Israel has intensified raids. The Palestinian Authority health ministry said the four were <killed as a result of the occupation's bombing of Nur Shams camp>. An Israeli military statement said forces <carried out a precise strike on the terrorist cell,> killing four militants it identified as Muhammad Shehade, Muhammad Kanouah, Yazid Shafa and Namer Ibrahim. The statement said the four were <attempting to plant explosive devices> targeting Israeli soldiers operating in the area. According to the Palestinian official news agency Wafa, the dead, aged 20 to 25, were killed by a drone near the centre of the camp. One man was killed by Israeli fire in a separate Israeli operation in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, the Palestinian health ministry said in a statement Wednesday. The statement identified the man as Nidal Ziad al-Amer, 23. An Israeli security official told AFP that al-Amer was killed as the Israeli army tried to arrest him for militant activity.
The towns of Jenin and Tulkarm are known as bastions of Palestinian militant activity and are frequently targeted by Israeli raids. Violence in the West Bank has spiked since the October 7 attack by Hamas against Israel that ignited Israel's offensive in Gaza. On Monday, a woman and child were killed in an Israeli raid in Nur Shams, according to Palestinian officials. Four others were wounded. A two-day Israeli operation in April left 14 people dead in Nur Shams, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
At least 560 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank since the conflict in Gaza began, according to a health ministry tally.
At least 15 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks in the West Bank over the same period, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.>>
Source:
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240703-five-palestinians-killed-in-israeli-raids-in-west-bank


Mother and daughter
BBC - July 2, 2024 - By Tom Bateman, State department correspondent
<<Ex-officials say Gaza policy has put US at risk
Displaced people in Gaza on Tuesday
Twelve former Biden administration officials who resigned over policy on Israel and the Gaza war say the government's actions have endangered US national security. The policies have further destabilised the region and <put a target on America's back>, they say in a joint statement. One of the 12 resigned only on Tuesday from the US Department of the Interior. The US Department of State has previously denied such claims, pointing to its criticism of civilian casualties in Gaza and its efforts to boost humanitarian aid.
Israel orders Palestinians to leave southern Gaza area after rocket fire
Where does Israel get its weapons?
The joint statement by the former officials says: <America's diplomatic cover for, and continuous flow of arms to Israel has ensured our undeniable complicity in the killings and forced starvation of a besieged Palestinian population in Gaza.> This is not the first such statement from former officials but it comes alongside the latest resignation from the administration of Maryam Hassanein, a special assistant at the US Department of Interior. She also signed the statement. The former officials accuse the US government of clinging to a <failed policy> that has not only been devastating for the Palestinian people but has endangered Israelis, stifled free speech and undermined US credibility over its commitment to a rules-based international order. The joint statement says ongoing weapons transfers to Israel despite its actions in Gaza have further destabilised the Middle East and <put a target on America's back>. <Our nation's political and economic interests across the region have also been significantly harmed, while US credibility has been deeply undermined worldwide at a time we need it most, when the world is characterised by a new era of strategic competition,> the statement says. Among the other signatories is Josh Paul, who oversaw Congressional relations on weapons transfers. He quit in October.
A former White House official, two former air force department personnel and a former army officer in the Defence Intelligence Agency also signed the statement. The state department has been approached for comment. It has previously said it encouraged different views on policy and staff could make them known through <appropriate channels>. The US had <been clear at the highest levels publicly and privately with Israel that it must abide by international humanitarian law>, a state department spokesperson said in April. The spokesperson's comments came shortly after seven current and former US officials told the BBC that President Biden's pressure on Israel after a deadly attack on aid workers did not go far enough and would fail to stem the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy the Hamas group which runs Gaza in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken hostage.
More than 37,900 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.>>
Source:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c725wxky293o

France 25 - July 2, 2024 - By: NEWS WIRES
<<Israel carries out deadly strikes on southern Gaza after issuing evacuation order
The Israeli army Tuesday bombarded southern Gaza, killing at least eight and wounding dozens in Khan Younis, after ordering some 250,000 Palestinians in the area to evacuate early Monday. The shelling came after Israel released Mohammed Abu Selmia, the director of Shifa hospital - formerly Gaza's largest - who said that he and other detainees had been held in harsh conditions and tortured. Israeli forces carried out deadly strikes Tuesday on southern Gaza and battled militants after issuing an evacuation order which a UN agency said would impact 250,000 Palestinians.
Witnesses reported intense bombing and shelling around Khan Yunis, southern Gaza's main city, from which Israeli troops withdrew in early April after a devastating months-long battle. A hospital source in the city said shelling killed eight people and wounded more than 30 others. The bombardment came after a rocket barrage at southern Israel on Monday morning claimed by the militant group Islamic Jihad, which has fought alongside Hamas. This was followed by an order to evacuate most areas east of Khan Yunis and in Rafah along the borders with Israel and Egypt.
An AFP photographer saw Palestinians leave eastern Khan Yunis on foot, in cars and on horse or donkey carts, carrying their belongings with them.
Some displaced people with nowhere to go were sleeping on the streets, witnesses said.
Ahmad Najjar, a resident of the town of Bani Suhaila, said the Israeli evacuation order had caused <a large displacement of residents> and spurred <fear and extreme anxiety>. The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees estimates that <around 250,000 people have been impacted by these orders>, said UNRWA spokeswoman Louise Wateridge. <We expect that almost all of these people will move from this area,> she said. Six consecutive days of intense battles followed a similar evacuation order issued last week for the Gaza City district of Shujaiya. An AFP correspondent reported artillery shelling in the northern area on Tuesday, and witnesses said gun battles raged on. The military said its forces were operating in Shujaiya, central Gaza and Rafah, where aircraft carried out strikes and troops <ambushed an armed terrorist squad> in a car and killed them.
Strikes a 'daily routine'
Over the past day, the Israeli air force <struck approximately 30 terror targets> across Gaza, said a military statement. In Shujaiya, Palestinian militants <were eliminated and dozens of terrorist infrastructure sites above and below ground were dismantled, including tunnel shafts>, it added.
In central Gaza, witnesses said strikes hit the Nuseirat refugee camp where the Palestinian Red Crescent reported at least one dead, a child.
Mohamed al-Jalees, displaced from Shujaiya to Nuseirat, helped clear the rubble and search for survivors. <A missile struck our neighbours' house,> he told AFP. <We rushed to check on them, and some were rescued alive (but) we found a martyred child.>
<I have been displaced here for nine months... This is our daily routine.>
Other parts of the Gaza Strip were reeling from continued fighting nearly nine months into the war, which was sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel and has led to a dire humanitarian crisis. Months of on-and-off talks towards a truce and hostage release deal have made little progress, even after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared more than a week ago that the <intense phase> of the war was winding down.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday that <we've heard the Israelis talk about a significant downshift in their operations in Gaza>.
<It remains to be seen.>
The latest order to leave parts of southern Gaza follows an evacuation of Rafah nearly two months ago which had signalled the start of a long-feared Israeli offensive that has uprooted many Palestinians and blocked a key aid route.
'Failure'
Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures. The militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza including 42 the army says are dead. Israel's retaliatory offensive aimed at eradicating the Palestinians militants in Gaza has killed at least 37,925 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. The military announced two soldiers were killed in central Gaza, taking to 319 its death toll since ground operations began in late October. Israeli authorities on Monday released Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital -- the territory's largest medical complex, ravaged by Israeli raids -- along with dozens of other detainees returned to Gaza for treatment.
Abu Salmiya said he had suffered <severe torture> during his detention.
<Several inmates died in interrogation centres and were deprived of food and medicine,> he said after his release. Israel has accused Hamas of using Al-Shifa and other hospitals as a cover for military operations, claims Gaza militants have rejected. Netanyahu said the release had been made without his knowledge, and that Abu Salmiya belongs <in prison> because Israeli hostages were <murdered and held> in the hospital. The director's return to Gaza was <a serious mistake and a moral failure>, Netanyahu said. According to Abu Salmiya, Israel brought no charges against him during his seven-month detention. Israel's Shin Bet domestic security agency said the release was <to free up places in detention centres>. Those sent back to Gaza <represent a lesser danger> and were not directly involved in attacks on Israeli civilians, it said.
(AFP)>>
Source:
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20240702-renewed-israeli-orders-to-evacuate-khan-younis-signal-likely-attack-on-gazan-city


Palestinian forced displacement
Jinha - Womens News Agency - July 2, 2024
<<Palestinians face forced displacement again
The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders on Monday for areas in southern Gaza, including eastern Khan Younis. Displaced Palestinians face forced displacement again.
News Center- Since October 7, 2023, Israel has carried out attacks on the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders on Monday for areas in southern Gaza, including eastern Khan Younis. <For your safety, you must evacuate immediately to the humanitarian zone,> Avichay Adraee, the Israel Defense Forces' Arabic-language spokesperson, posted on social platform X.
Palestinians flee to Mevasi region
After the evacuation order, Palestinians living in eastern Khan Younis began to flee to the Mevasi region, a region that Israel once declared safe.
Patients transferred
The Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younis, a hospital within the evacuation zone, has transferred patients, including those in intensive care and babies in incubators to the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza.
<Just weeks after people were forced to return to a devastated Khan Younis, Israeli authorities have issued new evacuation orders for the area,> the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said in a post on Tuesday. <Yet again, families face forced displacement. We estimate 250,000 people will have to flee. Even though nowhere is safe in Gaza.> The Israeli military claimed rockets were launched from the Khan Younis toward Israel on Monday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement on Monday that the country's military is advancing to the end of the stage of eliminating Hamas' army in Gaza and will <continue striking its remnants.>
At least 37,900 Palestinians have been killed and 87,060 others injured in the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, the Gaza's health ministry said in a statement on Monday.>>
Source:
https://jinhaagency.com/en/actual/palestinians-face-forced-displacement-again-35307

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