Israel Again Orders Residents To Evacuate When Military Tanks Attack Gaza From Various Directions

JAKARTA - Israeli tanks advanced to the heart of Gaza City from various directions. Israel ordered Palestinian civilians to flee the neighborhood after the night of the bombing that Gaza authorities said had killed dozens of people.

Reported by Reuters on Monday, July 8, residents said the airstrikes and artillery strikes that occurred as multinational negotiations for the ceasefire agreement intensified were one of the toughest attacks on the Gaza Strip in nine months of conflict between Israeli forces and Hamas militants.

Gaza City, north of the Palestinian enclave, was one of the first territory Israeli forces entered at the start of the war.

But fighting with the militants that are still surviving there is still ongoing and civilians seek refuge elsewhere, thus adding to the wave of evacuations.

Most of the cities are in ruins.

Residents said the Gaza City neighborhood had been bombed all night until the early hours of the morning. Several high-rise buildings have been destroyed, they said.

Gaza's Civil Emergency Service said it believed dozens of people were killed but an emergency team could not reach them due to the ongoing attacks in Daraj and Tuffah in the east and Tel Al-Hawa, Sabra and Rimal in the west.

Gazans said the tanks moved forward from at least three directions on Monday and reached the heart of Gaza City, supported by large Israeli fire from the air and land.

This forced thousands of people out of their homes to find safer shelters, which for many were unlikely to be found, and some of them sleeping on the side of the road.