Neighbourhood in Gaza City hit by new Israeli bombardment
Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report several people have been killed and others wounded following an Israeli attack in the vicinity of the Salah al-Din Mosque in the Zeitoun neighbourhood in northern Gaza.
The report comes amid Israel’s announcement earlier it is withdrawing its troops from several areas in northern Gaza after a three-week operation that levelled about 1,000 buildings.
WFP director describes ‘horrific and apocalyptic’ scenes in Rafah
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in southern Gaza’s Rafah have been displaced again because of the Israeli military’s offensive in the area and have been forced to abandon limited support networks they relied on.
“The sounds and smells of everyday life are horrific and apocalyptic,” according to Matthew Hollingworth, Palestine country director at the World Food Programme (WFP).
“People sleep and wake to the sounds of bombing, drones and war. And now tanks are rolling into parts of central Rafah, which is only kilometres away” from the designated areas where Palestinians have been forced to go, he said during a virtual briefing with reporters.
“I have spoken to so many people over the last few days when I was in Gaza who asked me, ‘Shall I leave? Should we try to storm the border with Egypt? Should we try to go back to Gaza City? What should we do? We don’t know what to do. Where can I get the aid I used to know where to get?’”
‘Access denied’: Rafah invasion has halted aid distribution
Matthew Hollingworth, the Palestine country director of the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), says “ever decreasing” amounts of humanitarian aid are getting to southern Gaza since the Israeli invasion of Rafah.
“Rafah is still closed as a border crossing. WFP bakeries in Rafah have all closed down for the lack of fuel and constant supplies being impossible,” said Hollingworth.
“From May 7 to May 20, not a single WFP truck crossed from the southern corridors of Egypt into Rafah or into the central areas. And we were unable to access our main warehouse to the south because it was in an evacuation zone, and since then, we have lost that warehouse entirely, including its entire contents of 2,700 tonnes of food that’s either been looted or destroyed because of the fighting around southeastern areas of Rafah.”
Dozens of bodies recovered after Israeli withdrawal from Jabalia
Gaza’s civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal provided updates on the devastation at the Jabalia refugee camp after Israeli troops withdrew from the northern area:
- Dozens of bodies have been recovered, including 30 from a single family, 22 of whom were children and women.
- Most of the bodies recovered in Jabalia so far have been of children and women. The search is continuing in the rubble for more missing people.
- Many homes and much of the infrastructure in the camp has been completely destroyed.
- The Israeli military completely destroyed the main electrical generators in Kamal Adwan Hospital, along with the fifth floor of the al-Awda Hospital.
Homes and public facilities in Jabalia have been laid to waste after Israeli military operations
Water, sanitation services in Gaza City remain a severe challenge: Mayor
Yahya al-Sarraj just spoke to Al Jazeera Arabic about the dire situation in the war-battered city.
- “The Israeli occupation systematically targeted municipal services and facilities in the Gaza Strip.”
- “The occupation aims to empty the residential cities and displace all the people.”
- “We have great challenges, the most important of which is providing water and sanitation services.”
- “We are still unable to open streets because of vast amounts of rubble, which is hampering the provision of emergency services.”
- “Our services do not meet what is required and we cannot respond to the complaints we receive.”
