Israel presses offensive in north Gaza

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories — Fighting and bombardment shook Gaza's biggest city on Thursday, an AFP correspondent said, even after Israel's military declared an end to its operation in an eastern district that saw Gaza City's heaviest combat in months.

The upsurge in fighting, bombardment and displacement followed Israeli embattled prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statement in late June that "the war in its intense phase is about to end".

Gaza's authorities said troops had pulled back from Gaza City's eastern district of Shujaiya, leaving "more than 300 residential units and more than 100 businesses destroyed",

Witnesses said tanks and troops had moved into other Gaza City districts. An AFP correspondent reported air strikes on the Sabra neighbourhood while fighters engaged in heavy clashes with Israeli forces in Tel Al Hawa.

Officials in Gaza reported 45 air strikes in the Gaza City area, as well as in Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah.

Hamas's October 7 surprise attack on southern Israel that sparked the war. Israel responded with a military offensive that has killed at least 38,345 people in Gaza, according to figures from Gaza's health ministry.

The latest toll included 50 new deaths over the previous 24 hours, it said.

The United Nations said the latest evacuations “will only fuel mass suffering for Palestinian families, many of whom have been displaced many times”, and who face “critical levels of need”.

Palestinian official Hossam Badran told AFP that Israel was “hoping that the resistance will relinquish its legitimate demands” in truce negotiations.

But “the continuation of massacres compels us to adhere to our demands”, he said.

Standing nearby, Mohammed Nairi said he and other residents returned to “immense destruction that defies description. All the houses were demolished”.

Another displaced resident, a can of food tucked under her arm, said the district “lies in ruins”.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said around 60 bodies had been found in the ruins of Shujaiya.

“Once the Israeli occupation forces withdrew from the Shujaiya neighbourhood, civil defence crews, with local residents, managed to recover about 60 martyrs up to now,” agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said.