After strikes that trigger a fresh wave of mass evacuation, Israeli tanks move deep into Gaza Town

Following days of nonstop shelling that drove tens of thousands of Palestinian families who had previously been forced to evacuate in a fresh exodus, Israeli tanks penetrated deep into a community in the central Gaza Strip on Thursday.

Images showing Israeli tanks near a mosque in Bureij’s developed section were shared by a Palestinian journalist. The tanks appeared to have moved from orchards on the city’s eastern edge.

Israeli forces also targeted an area near a hospital in the center of Khan Younis, the main city in the southern Gaza Strip, where locals were afraid of a fresh ground invasion into an area densely populated with families who had been forced to flee their homes due to the 12-week conflict.

According to Palestinian health officials, 210 Israeli strikes have been verified as fatal in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of casualties from the conflict to 21,320, or about 1% of the enclave’s population. It’s thought that thousands more bodies are missing or buried beneath the rubble.

Despite public requests from its closest ally, the United States, to reduce the campaign in the final weeks of the year, Israel has substantially increased the intensity of its ground war in Gaza since shortly before Christmas.

IDF blows up an entire neighborhood in Khan Yunis, Gaza. pic.twitter.com/zaSi2rlwUm

— Clash Report (@clashreport) December 28, 2023

The battle against the Hamas movement, which controls Gaza, was started by it after fighters ambushed Israeli cities on October 7, murdering 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages.

As Israeli tanks advance, the major area of action currently takes place in the central areas south of the marshes that split the Gaza Strip. Over the past few days, Israeli soldiers have ordered people to leave these areas.

Tens of thousands of people were crammed into hurriedly constructed camps of makeshift tents on Thursday as they fled the vast Nusseirat, Bureij, and Maghazi districts and headed south or west into the already overrun city of Deir al-Balah along the Mediterranean coast.

“Over 150,000 people – young children, women carrying babies, people with disabilities & the elderly – have nowhere to go,” the main UN organisation operating in Gaza, UNRWA, said in a social media post.

Forced to move again

Evacuation order by Israeli authorities of middle #Gaza causes ongoing forced displacement

Over 150,000 people- young children, women carrying babies, people with disabilities & the elderly- have nowhere to go

Only remaining hope is humanitarian #ceasefire pic.twitter.com/g26qi62Pro

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) December 28, 2023

Israeli tanks were advancing from the east and north into the eastern portion of Bureij on Thursday morning, according to rebels and locals.

Omar, 60, stated he had been forced to relocate with at least 35 family members. “That moment has come, I wished it would never happen, but it seems displacement is a must,” he added.

He told Reuters over the phone, “We are now in a tent in Deir al-Balah because of this brutal Israeli war,” declining to provide a second name out of concern for retaliation.

Yamen Hamad reported that the recently displaced people from Bureij and Nusseirat were erecting tents wherever there was open ground. Hamad has been living in a school in Deir al-Balah since escaping from the north.

He claimed that his family’s food was running low and that he had taken a risky excursion to Rafah, which is close to the Egyptian border, to purchase a 25 kg sack of flour.

On Thursday morning, jets and tanks shelled Khan Younis, the main southern city where Israeli forces advanced last month following the breakdown of a truce, heavily, west of Israeli lines, close to the al-Amal hospital.

Ten Palestinians were killed and twelve injured in one bombing at the hospital, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, which oversees the facility and has its headquarters nearby. This was the third attack on the hospital’s surrounding area in less than an hour.

Locals expressed their belief that Israeli forces were attempting to incite a fresh exodus prior to launching another ground attack.

Women and children in Nasser Hospital, the major hospital in Khan Younis and the largest still operating in the enclave, screamed as the dead and injured were being carried in.

When doctors attempted to resuscitate a toddler who was lifeless on a cot, one of them nodded “no,” indicating that the child was dead.

A baby shrouded in a bloody white shroud lay between the knees of another person covered in a blanket, as a mother restrained two weeping girls who were covered in dust by the side of a bed.

Israel reported losing three more soldiers, for a total of 169 lost during the combat campaign. Some of the war’s most severe casualties have occurred throughout the last week.

Almost every person living in Gaza has been forced to abandon their home at least once, and many have had to do so multiple times. There are very few hospitals that remain open.

Invading IDF troops in the ruins of Gaza. pic.twitter.com/GPjoVBhqvm

— Clash Report (@clashreport) December 28, 2023

Egypt, which has served as a mediator and hosted the head of Hamas last week, said it had offered a ceasefire proposal that included three stages, but it had not yet received a response from the parties involved.

Israel claims that it is the only way to ensure its security and release the 129 hostages who are still held captive, and it will not stop its military campaign until it destroys Hamas.

After being kept captive for 51 days, during which time three of her children were taken by Hamas gunmen who also killed her husband and one of her daughters, Chen Almog-Goldstein was freed last month. She expressed her concern for the hostages who were still being held, particularly the women, some of whom she claimed had been sexually abused by their captors.

She remarked, “There, it is hell.” The surviving captives “are trying to keep their morale up but when we were let out, they were already on the edge.”

Hamas disputes that it mistreated or sexually assaulted the captives.

Given Hamas’s dispersed organizational structure and extensive ties to the region it has ruled since 2007, Palestinians claim that eliminating the organization is an impossible goal.

Israel’s partners in the West fear that the high number of civilian casualties would radicalize a new generation and cause instability throughout the Middle East. This week, US military in Iraq and commercial ships in the Red Sea have been assaulted by terrorists backed by Iran.

This month, US President Joe Biden issued a warning, claiming that “indiscriminate bombing” could undermine support for Israel among its allies. According to Washington, Israel ought to switch from waging a full-scale ground war to a focused offensive on Hamas leaders.