Thousands of Palestinians have been left with nowhere safe to shelter after Israel expanded its ground offensive into the few remaining overcrowded refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, killing dozens of people.
People started to flee from several built-up refugee camps in the central part of the besieged territory on Wednesday, as the Israeli military continued the heavy bombardment of the Bureij, Nuseirat and Maghazi refugee camps.
Palestinian media reported that Israeli warplanes targeted the homes of two Palestinian families in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing several people and wounding dozens more, adding that five people were also killed in a strike on a girl’s school in Maghazi.
According to local sources, there was also heavy fighting east and north of Bureij and in the nearby village of Juhr al-Deek.
The Israeli military issued evacuation orders for the Bureij refugee camp situated in central Gaza on Tuesday. The area is home to over 61,000 displaced people, who are registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
A stream of people flowed into the city of Deir al-Balah on foot or riding donkey carts loaded with belongings, setting up tents on sidewalks due to UN shelters being packed many times over capacity.
Many Palestinians sheltered in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital and its surroundings, hoping it would be safer from Israeli strikes.
The health ministry in Gaza said at least 195 people have been killed across the territory over the past 24 hours.
Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has described what is happening in Gaza as “beyond a war of annihilation.”
“What’s happening in the Palestinian territories is far beyond a disaster and far more than a genocide. The Palestinians have never seen anything like this,” he said.
The United Nations has also expressed grave concern over Israel’s continued bombardment of the central part of Gaza and its densely populated camps.
It further warned of a “deepening and already catastrophic humanitarian situation,” adding that all roads connecting the three camps had been destroyed and that any shelters and hospitals still operating were critically overcrowded and under-resourced.
Israel waged the brutal war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas carried out a historic operation against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime’s decades-long violence against Palestinians.
Since the start of the aggression, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 21,100 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 55,243 others.
