DEIR AL-BALAH (AP) – Israeli forces deepened an operation in the Gaza Strip’s largest city in what the military said was meant to weed out militants, sending thousands of Palestinians fleeing yesterday from an area already ravaged in the early weeks of the nine-month-long war.
The incursion into the eastern part of Gaza City expands Israel’s engagement in the northern part of the beleaguered territory, an area Israel said it had seized control of months ago yet which has seen militant resurgence that have scaled back Israeli military gains and drawn forces back into such operations. Israel had ordered evacuations in the area before the raid was launched, the military said.
Heavy fighting in the area in the initial weeks of the war all but emptied out Gaza City and its environs, and the Israeli military has prevented most people from returning to their homes there. But several hundred thousands of Palestinians remain in the area, living in the shells of their homes or shelters. The fresh fighting meant new displacement for many residents there.
“We fled in the darkness amid heavy strikes,” said a mother of three Sayeda Abdel-Baki who was sheltering at her relatives’ home in the Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City. “This is my fifth displacement.”
