GAZA STRIP
\nExplosions, air strikes and gunfire rattled northern Gaza on Saturday, the third day of an Israeli military attack that has uprooted tens of thousands of Palestinians and compounded what the UN called \u201cunbearable\u201d living conditions in the territory.
\nAn AFP correspondent reported ongoing explosions from the Shujaiya area near Gaza City, with a resident saying bodies were visible on the streets.
\nIsrael\u2019s military on Saturday said its operations were continuing in Shujaiya where fighting \u201cabove and below the ground\u201d left a \u201clarge number\u201d of fighters dead.
\nA resurgence of fighting in the area comes months after Israel had declared the command structure of Hamas dismantled in northern Gaza.
\nLast Sunday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the \u201cintense phase\u201d of the war was winding down after almost nine months, but experts see a potentially prolonged next phase.
\nThe Gaza war has also led to soaring tensions on Israel\u2019s northern border with Lebanon, leading Iran on Saturday to warn of an \u201cobliterating\u201d war if Israel attacked Lebanon.
\nThe war started with Hamas\u2019s October 7 attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
\nThe Palestinian group also seized hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza although the army says 42 are dead.
\nIsrael\u2019s offensive has killed at least 37,834 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. It reported at least 69 deaths over the previous 48 hours.
\nMohammed Harara, 30, said he and his family, young and old, felt as though they would become part of that toll.
\nHe said they fled from their home in Shujaiya with nothing, \u201cdue to the bombardment by Israeli planes, tanks and drones\u201d that they barely survived.
\n\u201cWe couldn\u2019t carry anything from the house. We left the food, flour, canned goods, mattresses, and blankets,\u201d Harara said.
\nIsrael\u2019s military on Friday said it was conducting \u201ctargeted raids\u201d backed by air strikes against Hamas in the Shujaiya area.
\nThe United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA estimated that \u201cabout 60,000 to 80,000 people were displaced\u201d from the area this week.
\nAFPTV images on Saturday showed men moving belongings on a donkey cart. Some people were pushed in wheelchairs. Children walked with backpacks past piles of dusty debris.
\n\u201cI saw a tank in front of the Shuhada mosque firing\u201d at targets, said Abdelkareem al-Mamluk. \u201cThere were martyrs in the street.\u201d
\nOn Friday Hamas and the armed wing of the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad both said they were fighting in Shujaiya.
\nElsewhere in the coastal territory, the civil defence agency on Saturday said four bodies were pulled from an apartment after an Israeli strike in the central region.
\nFurther south, in the Rafah area, witnesses reported dead and wounded after a new incursion by Israeli troops.
\nTarek Qandeel, director of the medical centre in Al-Maghazi, central Gaza, said the facility was seriously damaged in the bombing of a neighbouring house, making it the latest Gaza medical facility affected by the war.
\nThe United Nations, in a report on Friday that cited Gaza\u2019s health ministry, said \u201cabout 70 percent of health infrastructure has been destroyed\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GAZA STRIP Explosions, air strikes and gunfire rattled northern Gaza on Saturday, the third day of an Israeli military attack that has uprooted tens of thousands of Palestinians and compounded what the UN called \u201cunbearable\u201d living conditions in the territory. An AFP correspondent reported ongoing explosions from the Shujaiya area near Gaza City, with a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415478,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-415466","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n