GAZA –  Palestinians have fled Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood after Israeli forces carried out air raids and sent ground vehicles into the ravaged area, according to Gaza’s civil defence.

Muhammad Ghurab, a doctor at Gaza City’s al-Ahli Hospital, said on Thursday the facility had received seven “martyrs including four children” and more than 40 others who were wounded “as the Israeli forces advanced to the east of Shujayea neighbourhood”. Civil defence teams pulled out several bodies from the rubble following the attacks, the civil defence said in a statement, adding that search and rescue operations were continuing.

Hamas said in a statement the assault has led to “a number of martyrs and has forced thousands of Palestinians to flee under the pressure of ongoing shelling of the defenceless civilians”. Hamas said that the repeated attacks on “cities, camps and districts, and the deliberate killing of civilians and the destruction of infrastructure” was part of a “fascist policy” to increase the suffering of Palestinians. The group said it would continue to “inflict heavy losses” on Israel’s army until the “aggression is stopped and expelled from our land”.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said the majority of people in Gaza City’s Shujayea and Tuffa neighbourhoods were displaced Palestinians. (Al Jazeera)…[+]