The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has reported that Palestinian citizens in the Gaza Strip are in dire need of healthcare services. The agency noted that only a few of its health centers are still operational in the region.
In a post on its official page on Platform X today, UNRWA highlighted that severe shortages of medicine and fuel are obstructing life-saving operations. The agency emphasized that safe and sustainable access to aid cannot be delayed any further.
Israeli forces pushed deeper into a neighborhood in Gaza City, instructing Palestinians to move southward as tanks rolled in.
Concurrently, the southern city of Rafah was bombarded in what Israel claims are the final stages of an operation targeting Hamas militants.
Residents of Gaza City’s Shuja’iyya neighborhood reported being caught off guard by the advancing tanks, which opened fire in the afternoon, following drone attacks overnight.
“It’s like the war is starting all over again,” said Mohammed Jamal, a 25-year-old Gaza City resident, via a messaging app.
“Multiple airstrikes destroyed many houses in the area and shook buildings.”
The Palestinian Civil Defense reported casualties in Shuja’iyya, but ongoing attacks prevented their teams from reaching the victims. Initial reports indicate three people were killed in earlier shelling, and five were killed in the Sabra neighborhood.
The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad allied with Hamas, claimed responsibility for detonating a pre-planted explosive device against an Israeli tank east of Shuja’iyya.
Israel accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields and advises displaced individuals to avoid areas of military operations.
Avichay Adraee, the Israeli army spokesperson for Arabic media, tweeted, “To all residents and displaced persons in Shuja’iyya, the new neighborhoods, Turkman and Tuffah… for your safety, evacuate immediately southwards on Salah al-Din Road to the humanitarian zone.”
Hamas-affiliated media and local residents reported that tanks had already advanced before the evacuation announcement, prompting people in the eastern neighborhood to flee westward under fire while Israel closed off the southern route. The Israeli military has not issued any further comments.
More than eight months into the Israeli-Gaza conflict, which began after a surprise Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, aid workers warn of severe famine risk in the Gaza Strip.
Nearly half a million people face “catastrophic” levels of food insecurity. “We’re facing famine in northern Gaza, being hunted by tanks and planes with no hope for a ceasefire,” Jamal added.
