Why the Israeli army is expanding its invasion of Gaza City
Palestinians flee eastern part of Gaza City after they were ordered by the Israeli army to evacuate their neighbourhoods, 7 July 2024
Tareq S. Hajjaj reports in Mondoweiss on 8 July 2024:
The Israeli army’s invasion of Gaza City’s eastern Shuja’iyya neighborhood has entered its second week, and it is now spreading to other parts of the city. The entire city is being put under siege, with its some 300,000 remaining inhabitants trapped in the middle with nowhere to go.
The Shuja’iyya invasion started from the east as the Israeli army launched a surprise attack without prior warning to its residents. People suddenly found army tanks between their homes, leading people to begin leaving the al-Nazaz, al-Mantar, and al-Mansoura areas in droves. The people who remained were located in the northern and southern regions of Shuja’iyya.
The Israeli operation has followed a clear pattern so far. Military forces launch incursions into different neighborhoods at different points, storming one area after the other until they have deemed the resistance there eliminated. Often, the army encounters more fighting than expected, prompting an even wider invasion of large urban swathes in an attempt to snuff out the resistance. The operation swallows up more neighborhoods, and the army issues evacuation orders to the residents that have remained. Often the evacuation area is the same location in which Israeli forces operate.
On Sunday, July 7, the army ordered residents of different areas in Shuja’iyya such as al-Daraj and al-Tuffah, as well as residents of Gaza’s Old City, to leave their areas and head west. After residents obeyed the army’s orders, they found Israeli tanks coming in from the direction they were told to flee, indicating that the city was being surrounded from all sides. Thousands attempted to reach the United Nations headquarters in western Gaza but found the tanks stationed there, too. Gunfire, missiles, and “fire belts” surrounded them, leaving the displaced with nowhere to turn to.
Many of these refugees have been forced to spend the night in the street, especially after the army bombed a school two days ago housing a large number of displaced people in western Gaza City, killing dozens of Palestinians.
Testimonies gathered by Mondoweiss from Shuja’iyya residents confirm that the Israeli army operations continue to be met with fierce resistance, with several residents describing the marked intensity of the army’s artillery fire and airstrikes across the neighborhood. Residents tell Mondoweiss that the bombing in al-Shuja’iyya, al-Tuffah, and the Old City does not stop. Several say the bombardment is “incomparable” to anything they have experienced so far.