Fierce fighting in northern Gaza, as aid starts to roll off US-built pier
World
Fierce fighting in northern Gaza, as aid starts to roll off US-built pier
CAIRO (Reuters) - Israeli forces battled Hamas fighters in the narrow alleyways of Jabalia in northern Gaza on Friday in some of the fiercest engagements since they returned to the area a week ago, while in the south militants attacked tanks massing around Rafah.
Residents said Israeli armour had thrust as far as the market at the heart of Jabalia, the largest of Gaza's eight historic refugee camps, and that bulldozers were demolishing homes and shops in the path of the advance.
As fighting raged in the north and south of the territory, the U.S. military said trucks had started moving aid ashore from a temporary pier built off Gaza.
"Israel's focus is Jabalia now, tanks and planes are wiping out residential districts and markets, shops, restaurants, everything. It is all happening before the one-eyed world," said Ayman Rajab, a resident of western Jabalia.
"Shame on the world. Meanwhile, the Americans are going to get us some food," Rajab, a father-of-four, told Reuters via a chat app. "We want no food, we want this war to end and then we can manage our lives on our own."
Israel had said its forces had cleared Jabalia months earlier in the Gaza war, triggered by the deadly Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on Oct. 7, but said last week it was returning to prevent the Islamist group re-establishing itself there.
The fighting has coincided with an assault on Rafah at the southern edge of the strip bordering Egypt sending hundreds of thousands of people fleeing from both ends of the territory at once. Thick smoke could be seen rising over Rafah on Friday.
