Israeli strike on northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp kills 22

Thousands trapped as Israeli military issues evacuation orders for residents to move towards the south of the enclave.

At least 22 people, including women and children, have been killed in an Israeli attack on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza as Israeli forces press on with their ground assault in the area.

As the death toll mounted on Saturday, the Israeli military issued evacuation orders for northern Gaza issuing instructions for residents near Jabalia to evacuate to the south of the enclave.

The Israel military launched a deadly offensive in the Jabalia area a week ago which it claims is aimed at stopping Palestinian group Hamas from regrouping. The attacks have trapped thousands of Palestinian civilians, international charity Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, said.

Palestinian news agency Wafa reported on Saturday that Israeli fighter jets bombed a multistorey apartment block in Jabalia on Friday night, hitting four inhabited homes and killing 22 people.

At least 30 people were injured, and 14 people remain missing and are believed to be buried under the rubble, according to Wafa.

Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said that “powerful explosions were heard in the northern part of the Gaza Strip”, adding that many of the casualties were “arriving at the hospital either in pieces or soaked in blood”.

The Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north was perilously close to running out of fuel and staff said Israeli soldiers had ordered them to leave.

Reporting from the facility, Al Jazeera’s Moath al-Kahlout described the weeklong siege as “suffocating”.

The situation is “dire”, he reported, as the hospital has also been ordered by the Israeli military to cease operations. But he said it continues to treat patients ranging from those severely injured to newborns.

In Gaza City, at least three people were killed and several more injured after a separate strike hit a home in the Tuffah neighbourhood, according to Palestine Red Crescent Society paramedics.

New evacuation order

The Israeli military posted a map of northern Gaza on social media platform X on Saturday with instructions for residents in the vicinity of Jabalia to leave.

“The area must be evacuated immediately via [Salah al-Din Street] to the humanitarian area,” the post said, referring to so-called Israeli-designated humanitarian safe zones between al-Mawasi and Deir el-Balah.

The “humanitarian area”, already populated by overcrowded tent camps housing about one million displaced Palestinians, has been repeatedly attacked by the Israeli military.

Amid the evacuation order, MSF project coordinator Sarah Vuylsteke wrote on X that “nobody is allowed to get in or out” from within Jabalia itself, adding that “anyone who tries is getting shot”.

Five MSF staff were trapped in Jabalia, she said.

“I don’t know what to do; at any moment we could die. People are starving. I am afraid to stay, and I am also afraid to leave,” she quoted Haydar, an MSF driver, as saying.

Earlier, MSF criticised Israel’s efforts to “forcefully and violently push thousands of people from northern Gaza to the south”.

Meanwhile, Gaza-based Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Anas al-Sharif wrote on X in the early hours of Saturday that the condition of Al Jazeera cameraman Fadi al-Wahidi has “deteriorated seriously”.

On Wednesday, al-Wahidi was struck with a live round to his neck while he was covering the Israeli assault on Jabalia. His colleague Ali al-Attar was also shot and wounded while covering the condition of displaced Palestinians in Deir el-Balah.

Much of Gaza has been laid to waste since Israel launched its war on the Palestinian territory in the wake of the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health said on Saturday that at least 42,175 people have been killed and 98,336 wounded in Israeli attacks since October 2023.

The toll includes 49 dead and 219 injured in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry.

Source

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Al Jazeera and news agencies