Occupation fires at displaced Palestinians returning north, sends tanks into Khan Younis

Israeli forces occupying an area in the middle of the Gaza Strip opened fire on Tuesday night on Palestinians who attempted to cross via Bahr Street to return to their homes in the north. 

At least four Palestinians were killed in the gunfire, said Awda Hospital Acting Coordinator of Communications Khaled al-Helw who told Mada Masr that the bodies were transferred to the hospital along with several other injury cases.

Occupation forces in the strip also launched attacks at additional sites that were crowded with displaced people overnight, temporarily sending tanks into Khan Younis and killing around 80 people, according to Al Jazeera, and launching drone strikes on the Nuseirat camp. 

The aggression came just hours after people in Gaza celebrated the spectacle of Iranian rockets penetrating Israel’s airspace.

Commenting on the Palestinians who were traveling north, Helw said that Israeli forces opened fire from the Netsarim corridor, an area of land that Israeli forces have occupied for months to try and control movement between the northern and the southern Gaza.

According to estimates by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Palestine, nine out of every 10 Palestinians in Gaza are displaced from their homes, with only about 300,000-350,000 remaining in northern Gaza. 

A warning was issued on Wednesday to Palestinians displaced to southern and central Gaza against returning to their homes in the north in a post published on social media by Ghassan Alian, the Israeli government's coordinator of activities in the Palestinian territories.

In southern Gaza, eyewitnesses described intensive airstrikes hitting eastern Khan Younis on Tuesday night without prior warning, paving the way for an hours-long tank incursion. The fire only subsided the following morning when the tanks ultimately withdrew.

Israeli fire was indiscriminate in targeting tents sheltering displaced people and passersby, destroying at least five homes with their residents inside in the Manara and Maan areas, according to eyewitnesses and survivors of the attack who spoke to Mada Masr the following day.

“A number of houses were bombed by the Occupation’s aircraft, resulting in massacres among members of more than one family,” said Ibrahim al-Eshra, a resident of the al-Manara area, in eastern Khan Younis.

Four family members of Mada Masr Gaza Correspondent Hassan Eslaih were in the area when Occupation forces opened fire and were martyred on Tuesday night. 

Besides the Eslaih family, the families of al-Farra, Abu Taha, al-Basheety, al-Masry, and al-Zarad also lost multiple members under the rubble of their destroyed homes.

Mounir al-Zarad, who was injured in the attack, had only lived in the house that was bombed last night for two months. He told Mada Masr that his family arrived there recently after fleeing another area in the strip that had come under fire. His brother, sister-in-law, their daughter, and another child from the family were killed in the attack, Zarad told Mada Masr. 

Many described the shelling as lasting for hours, during which health and search and rescue agencies were unable to approach the area. 

Mahmoud Abu Taha, a resident of the Maan area, was trapped inside his home after it was bombed, he told Mada Masr. Abu Taha explained that Occupation forces began shelling the area after dark last night and continued for about seven hours. 

Zarad, likewise, explained that he and his family were trapped inside the house for four hours before the onslaught ended and their neighbors were able to come to their rescue,with one being a nurse who worked to stop his bleeding. Another person injured in his household died later of their injuries. 

Israeli quadcopters were deployed to fire at everything that moved, said Abu Taha. Tahani Skaik, a resident who lost her husband in last night’s attack likewise said that ambulances were prevented from entering the area.

The same night witnessed Occupation airstrikes against displaced tents at a school that belongs to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, near the Nuseirat refugee camp, as well as against a school and an orphanage housing displaced people in Gaza City.

Karim al-Sheikh, one of the survivors of the overnight bombing on the Sawarha UNRWA school, told Mada Masr that he was sleeping inside his tent in the school yard when a missile launched by an Israeli drone targeted them, killing six people and injuring others.

Mahmoud Madi, another displaced Palestinian, explained to Mada Masr that he sought safety inside the school because of its affiliation with UNRWA and because the area houses several families with children and has no weapons. 

“We came to the UNRWA school because we felt it was safer, and there are no safe places outside. Even the school was hit. The children were scared and no one slept that night,” he said while hugging his child who appeared to be in shock from the bombing.

The same night also witnessed airstrikes against a school and an orphanage housing displaced people in Gaza City that killed nine Palestinians.