Israel declares Gaza City a 'dangerous combat zone' as it recovers remains of two hostages
By Tamar Michaelis, Ibrahim Dahman, Oren Liebermann, Tareq Al Hilou, CNN
Israel said there will no longer be “tactical pauses” of military activity in Gaza City. The pauses began a month ago as international outrage grew over the worsening humanitarian crisis and starvation in the battered enclave. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said at the time that the 10-hour pauses were for “humanitarian purposes.”
But when the Israeli security cabinet approved the takeover and occupation of Gaza City earlier this month, they made clear there would be no aid distribution sites within the city itself, forcing people to leave in search of food.
Israel has already begun pounding the outskirts of Gaza City, striking neighborhoods on the edge of the densely packed area ahead of an assault on the center of the city. The attacks on adjacent neighborhoods have forced Palestinians to flee deeper inside Gaza City, according to Dr. Munir al-Bursh, the Director-General of the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
“The population density in Gaza City has reached 60,000 people per one square kilometer,” al-Bursh told CNN.
Further north, the Hamad Hospital said on Friday that it received 11 bodies of people who “were shot by the Israeli occupation army in the northern Gaza Strip” as they waited for aid. Another 100 people were injured in the gunfire, the hospital said.
CNN captured footage from the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City as residents fled the sound of gunfire. A mother and her three young children could be seen running behind the wall of a building to hide from the shelling.
“We came out of horror, literal horror films,” one woman said as she walked toward a refugee camp.
“Shelling, mortars, rockets, gunfire, as you see,” a child, Ibrahim Dumiati, said of the Israeli attacks. “There are no words to describe the situation. Danger, people dying, shells. We have been displaced and are going to Nuseirat Camp.”
Another fleeing resident, Abu Mahmoud, told CNN that most people in the neighborhood have no resources to escape quickly: “Where can those without shelter go? We don’t have money to move.”
The injured and martyrs were transferred to Al-Shifa Hospital via ambulances from the Ministry of Health and Medical Services.
Video from social media showed the aftermath of what appeared to be a large strike in the Jabalya neighborhood on the northern edge of Gaza City.
“The Israeli occupation continues to target residential blocks through airstrikes, quadcopter attacks, and the detonation of explosive robots in neighborhoods,” said Faris Afaneh, the director of ambulance and emergency services in northern Gaza. The attacks have killed and injured Palestinians, Afaneh said, and forced people to evacuate in what he called “this massive and unprecedented campaign.”
Afaneh said there had been multiple Israeli strikes in the neighborhoods around Gaza City.
On Thursday, residents told CNN Israeli drones had been dropping leaflets over several areas in and around Gaza City, saying, “To everyone in Gaza City and Jabalya area, as you were previously warned, the Israeli army is expanding its operations towards the West. For your safety, evacuate immediately south from Wadi Gaza.”
Ismail Zaida took stock of a once-vibrant market, which he says was the target of a recent Israeli attack.
“This market which had thousands of people – thousands of people! - has now become empty streets,” Zaida told CNN. “The quadcopters are flying over the area, telling people to leave, don’t subject yourself to destruction.”
While some fled, others remained in their half-destroyed homes, refusing to leave.
“About an hour ago, quadcopters came in and threw no less than 50 bombs at the squares,” Abu Salah, another resident, said, which preceded a round of artillery fire. He told CNN he is staying put for now, but he fears worse may be ahead. “Last night was a very difficult night.”
The death toll in Gaza has reached 63,025 people, with a further 159,490 injured since the war began, according to the latest update from the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The ministry added that “hospitals continue to record daily deaths due to famine and malnutrition,” many of them children.
Remains of two hostages recovered
On Friday, Israel’s military also recovered the body of one hostage and the remains of another in Gaza.
The recovered body was identified as Ilan Weiss, 56, from Kibbutz Be’eri, and the remains of the other hostage have yet to be identified, the Prime Minister’s Office said.
Weiss’ wife and daughter, Shiri and Noga, were kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri during the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023 and were released during the first ceasefire in November that year. At the time, it was believed that Weiss might still be alive. But in January 2024, Kibbutz Be’eri announced that Ilan Weis had been killed during the attack on the community and his body taken into Gaza.
The IDF did not say where in Gaza the remains were recovered from.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said that alongside the “grief and pain,” the recovery of Weiss’s body “provides some comfort to the family after 692 days of waiting in the nightmare of uncertainty.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog described the return of Weiss’ body as a “moment of deep sorrow, but also of closure,” while Defense Minister Israel Katz said, “We won’t rest or be quiet until they all come back home.”
After the recovery of the two deceased hostages, there are now 48 hostages remaining in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to be alive.
The-CNN-Wire
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