Gazans face new dilemma as Israeli forces advance

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Dawood Abu Elkas

CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinians in the relatively unscathed Al-Naser area of Gaza City were having to decide whether to stay or go on Thursday after the Israeli military dropped leaflets warning that troops would take control of the western neighbourhood.

Israel has ordered the hundreds of thousands of people living in Gaza City to leave as it intensifies its all-out war on the Palestinian militant group Hamas, but with little safety, space and food in the rest of Gaza, people face dire choices.

"It has been almost two years, with no rest, no settling down, not even sleep," said Ahmed Al-Dayeh, a father, as he and his family prepared to flee the city in a truck pulled by a motorcycle, laden with some of their belongings.

"Our life revolves around war," he said. "We have to go from this area to that area. We can't take it anymore, we are tired."

DEADLY SEARCH FOR FOOD

Israeli strikes killed 34 people across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, according to medics and local health authorities, including 22 in Gaza City and 12 in the central and southern parts of the territory.

Seven of those killed were searching for food when they were hit, the Palestinian officials said.

Israeli ground troops had operated in parts of Al-Naser at the start of the war in October 2023, and the leaflets dropped late on Wednesday left residents fearful that tanks would soon advance to occupy the entire neighbourhood.

In the past week, Israeli forces have been operating in three Gaza City neighbourhoods further east - Shejaia, Zeitoun, and Tuffah - and sent tanks briefly into Sheikh Radwan, which is adjacent to Al-Naser. The military said last Thursday it controlled 40% of the city.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military said it struck 360 targets in Gaza in what it called an escalation of strikes that targeted "terrorist infrastructure, cameras, reconnaissance operations rooms, sniper positions, anti-tank missile launch sites, and command and control complexes".

It added that in the coming days, it would intensify attacks in a focused manner to strike Hamas infrastructure, "disrupting its operational readiness, and reducing the threat to our forces in preparation for the next phases of the operation".

Gaza City families continued to stream out of their homes in areas targeted by Israeli aerial and ground operations, heading either westward towards the centre of the city and along the coast, or south towards other parts of the shattered enclave.

But some were either unwilling or unable to leave.

"We don't have enough money, enough to flee. We don't have any means to go south like they say," said Abu Hani, who was attending the funeral of a friend who was among those killed in Thursday's strikes.

The war was triggered by Hamas-led attacks launched from Gaza on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed, and 251 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

DEATHS FROM STARVATION

Israel's military assault on Gaza has killed more than 64,000 people, also mostly civilians, according to local health authorities, caused a hunger crisis and wider humanitarian disaster, and reduced much of the enclave to rubble.

Seven more Palestinians, including a child, have died of malnutrition and starvation in Gaza in the past 24 hours, the territory's health ministry said on Thursday, raising the number deaths from such causes to at least 411, including 142 children.

Israel says it is taking steps to prevent food shortages in Gaza, letting in hundreds of trucks of supplies though international agencies say far more is needed.

The status of negotiations towards a ceasefire in Gaza that were being hosted and co-mediated by Qatar has been uncertain since Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas in an airstrike on the Qatari capital Doha on Tuesday.

The airstrike took place shortly after Hamas claimed responsibility for a shooting on Monday that killed six people at a bus stop on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo and Dawood Abu Elkas in Gaza City; Writing by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Philippa Fletcher and Helen Popper)