Fighting rages in Shejaya, rockets fired at Israel

The Israeli military said that Palestinian armed groups in Gaza fired about 20 rockets at Israeli border communities, the most serious attack in months.

Some shells were intercepted and others landed in southern Israel, but no casualties were reported. The military said it responded with artillery fire.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) said it carried out the attack in response to Israel’s “crime”.

Meanwhile, Israel issued new evacuation orders for parts of the Khan Younis district in southern Gaza.

People in the area first received audio messages asking them to leave, and then the Israeli military issued a message in Arabic repeating the warning on social media. Witnesses said many people had begun to flee.

Elsewhere, fierce fighting in Shejaya in northern Gaza continued for a fifth day and an Israeli soldier was shot dead in the Rafah district in the south.

Israel’s prime minister said on Sunday that Israeli forces were fighting “hard battles” across the Palestinian territories.

On October 7, an unprecedented attack in southern Israel left approximately 1,200 people dead and 251 others taken hostage as the Israeli military launched an operation to destroy Hamas.

Since then, more than 37,900 people have been killed in Gaza, including 23 in the past 24 hours, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

Alerts were sounded on Monday morning in Israeli communities near the Gaza border fence, many of which have been evacuated since the Oct. 7 attack.

The Ashkol Regional Council later reported that 18 rockets were fired into the area under its jurisdiction. According to the Jerusalem Post. Most landed in open areas, but one landed “in the fenced area of ​​Kibbutz Howlit,” the report said. Another rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system, the report added.

Monday’s attack was the largest in Gaza since January, according to the Times of Israelat least 25 rockets were launched towards Netivot.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the latest rocket came from the southern area of ​​Khan Yunis and that its artillery hit the source of the launch.

Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Monday’s shelling killed one civilian and wounded several others in the town of Kuza, southeast of the city of Khan Younis.

Israeli warplanes also struck a street in Shejaya, east of Gaza City, and an area north of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

Meanwhile, Hamas’s military wing said its militants targeted two Israeli tanks with explosive devices in Shejaya.

The IDF said in a statement that its troops “neutralized numerous terrorists in close encounters and recovered a large amount of weapons” during the raid in Shejaya. The airstrike killed about 20 people and destroyed weapons manufacturing and storage facilities in the area.

Fighting has been raging there since Thursday, when Israeli troops returned to the area after what the IDF said was “intelligence indicating the presence of terrorists and terror infrastructure.”

Over the weekend, residents said attacks left bodies strewn in the streets, and the Israel Defense Forces said two Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting in northern Gaza.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) said up to 80,000 people in Shejaya and surrounding areas had been told by the Israel Defense Forces to evacuate and head south, but they were pushed west because they were unable to pass through the Israeli checkpoint area of ​​Gaza’s Wadi.

“Israeli forces have completely destroyed this neighborhood,” a woman from the neighboring Tufa area told BBC Arabic’s Gaza Lifeline programme.

“I ran away with others as shells rained down around us. We moved from one area to another until we managed to escape the area. But many residents were trapped and unable to leave,” she added.

“We are experiencing hunger, fear, killings, displacement and utter destruction.”

Palestinian militants have regrouped in several northern areas that were the focus of Israeli ground attacks in the first three months of the war.

Rafah has been the main focus since early May, with the IDF believing it has now reduced the capabilities of three of the city’s four Hamas battalions.

An estimated 10,000 people still in the city told Reuters that Israeli tanks advanced further into western and central areas on Monday, a day after they were reported to have moved to within 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) of the Mediterranean coast.

Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces announced that a soldier was killed in fighting in southern Gaza on Monday.

Hamas gave no further details about the incident but earlier said its militants blew up a booby-trapped house in Rafah after luring Israeli troops into it.

In another development on Monday, the director of Gaza City’s Shifa hospital was released after seven months in Israeli detention. Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya claimed that he was tortured in detention. Israel denies mistreating detainees.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting on Sunday that Israeli forces were operating “across the Gaza Strip” and killing “dozens of terrorists” every day.

“This is a tough battle, fought above ground, sometimes hand-to-hand, but also underground,” he warned.

He added: “We are committed to fighting until all of our goals are achieved: the elimination of Hamas, the return of all hostages, ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel, and the safe return of our residents to their homes.”

UNRWA planning director Sam Ross told the BBC in Nuserat camp that the humanitarian situation in Gaza’s 2.2 million people, with three-quarters of them displaced, was becoming increasingly desperate.

“People need water, people need health care. It’s getting hotter here, 35 degrees [Celsius]stench of sewage, and lack of solid waste management facilities, the area has essentially become a garbage dump. [for rubbish],” He said.

“The amount of fuel that goes through the crossing is insufficient. Without it, the incubators don’t work, the wells don’t work… Doing the simplest things is a real struggle for everyone.