The Israeli army announces the end of its military operation in the Shujaiya neighborhood in Gaza City
The Israeli army announced on Wednesday evening that it had ended its operations in the eastern Gaza City neighborhood of Shujaiya, which has seen heavy fighting over the past two weeks.
The Israeli army said in a statement that its operations led to the destruction of eight tunnels, “the elimination of dozens of terrorists and the destruction of combat complexes and booby-trapped buildings”.
The offensive in Shujaiya, in which Israeli special units took part, on Monday expanded to central Gaza City.
Gaza Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal spoke of “massive destruction of infrastructure and residential blocks in the Shujaiya neighborhood, which has turned into a ghost town”.
“We tell the world for the millionth time that the reality in the Gaza Strip is tragic,” he said in a statement, appealing to international institutions and human rights organizations to act.
On Wednesday, the Israeli military dropped thousands of leaflets in Arabic language on Gaza City addressed to “everyone in Gaza City” identifying “safe routes” with arrows pointing to the exit corridors from the city to the south.
The Israeli army warned that Gaza City will remain a dangerous fighting zone.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that according to their estimates, up to 350,000 people remain inside Gaza City.
Israeli forces launched a ground offensive at the beginning of May on Rafah, on the border with Egypt, which the Israel presented at the time as Hamas’s last stronghold.
Since then, however, clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants have increased in the northern and central Gaza Strip.
