The Gaza Strip Civil Defense has so far recovered 60 bodies in Shujaiya on Thursday, following the withdrawal of Israeli troops yesterday, but warns that dozens of bodies remain trapped under the rubble.
“We have declared the Shujaiya area uninhabitable and it lacks vital facilities such as health services, electricity and water,” Civil Defence spokesman Mahmud Basal told a news conference at the site.
At least 50 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip by Israeli strikes in the past day and 54 have been injured by Israeli attacks in the past 24 hours, according to the latest data from the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.
Areas inaccessible to rescue teams
The spokesman said there were still areas of Shujaiya, a neighbourhood on the south-eastern outskirts of Gaza City, that were inaccessible to rescue teams due to the level of destruction or the risk of attacks.
“There was extensive destruction, the whole area has become a ghost town and is not fit for living,” he said.
More than 85 percent of Shujaiya’s buildings have collapsed, Basal said, and the only remaining medical clinic in the neighborhood, which provided medical services to more than 60,000 people, “has been completely destroyed.”
According to testimonies from survivors in the neighbourhood, the army attacked the displaced people following giving them security guarantees to leave.
Military operation in Shujaiya concluded
The Israeli army on Wednesday concluded its military operation in Shujaiya, where it returned for the second time two weeks ago in response to the regrouping of forces from the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, and said it had killed some 150 suspected militants and destroyed eight tunnels.
Israeli forces already carried out an intense operation in Shujaiya, a Hamas stronghold, in December that left the area virtually razed to the ground; they also returned briefly in April to prevent the return of Hamas troops.
In December, the army killed three Israeli hostages there by mistake when they came out with their arms raised and white flags to ask for help, thinking it was a trap.
Israel ended its incursion in Shujaiya on the same day it ordered the evacuation of the entire city of Gaza, where its troops have also returned in recent days to fight Hamas forces, which are managing to regroup in areas that the army thought it controlled.
Gazans have been asked to move to the “safe zone” of Deir al-Balah in the centre of the Gaza Strip, but humanitarian organisations say there is nowhere safe to go.
Nine months of war have left 38,345 Palestinians dead in the Strip – including more than 16,000 children – and 88,295 wounded, in addition to 10,000 bodies estimated to be missing under the rubble, according to the same source.
Nine out of ten people have experienced at least one displacement in the enclave since the war began, while most have had to move from one place to another on several occasions, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
More than 500 Palestinian families have been completely wiped out
In addition, more than 500 Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip have been completely wiped out as a result of the intense Israeli bombardment in nine months of war, such as the Salem family, whose more than 85 members were killed in several attacks in Gaza City in December.
In early December, an attack on the Salem family home in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City killed 85 of its members, while the rest died days later in successive bombings in the Rimal and Tal al Hawa neighbourhoods, where they fled.
According to records, 12 families were completely wiped out in Israel’s military operation last month in the Nuseirat refugee camp, which was heavily bombed for several days, culminating in the rescue operation of four Israeli hostages on June 8, which sparked a real battle with militants in which more than 270 Palestinians were killed, according to the Hamas government.
Families completely annihilated
Among the families that were completely wiped out was the Al Astal family, which lost more than 64 members in an attack on their home in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, last November.
Also in Khan Yunin, during search operations for bodies, the Civil Defence found 37 bodies of the Muanmar family, who died in a bombing that targeted journalist Alaa Muanmar, right at the European Hospital. This attack resulted in the elimination of five entire families from the Civil Registry.
The war broke out on October 7, 2023, following a Hamas attack on Israel that left some 1,200 dead and 251 kidnapped.
Negotiations for a truce in Gaza
Negotiations to reach a truce in the Gaza Strip are also moving forward and the mediating delegations have reached a framework for the agreement backed by Israel and Hamas that includes the formation of a provisional government in the Palestinian enclave, a source from the Islamist group told EFE on Thursday.
The source, who asked not to be named, said talks in the Qatari capital Doha on Wednesday marked “a major breakthrough” following Hamas dropped its demand for a written agreement on a permanent end to the war and the warring parties agreed to a six-week ceasefire as a first phase.
Borrell: US pressure on Netanyahu “has not been enough”
On the other hand, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said in an interview with EFE that the pressure from the United States on the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, “has not been enough” to stop the war in Gaza and recalled that Washington has more drastic measures to influence Israel, such as restricting arms sales.
Jerusalem / EFE
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2024-07-12 04:53:54