Israel Warns: Don't Return to N. Gaza  04/15 06:26

   

   DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) -- The Israeli military renewed warnings on 
Monday for Palestinians in Gaza not to return to the embattled territory's 
north, a day after Gaza hospital officials said five people were killed as 
throngs of displaced residents tried to reach their homes in the war-torn area.

   Northern Gaza was an early target of Israel's war against Hamas and vast 
parts of it have been flattened, forcing much of the area's population to flee 
south. While around 250,000 people are said to be living in the north, the 
Israeli military has prevented most displaced people from returning throughout 
the six-month-long war, saying the area is an active battle zone.

   The military has reduced the number of troops it has in Gaza and has said it 
has loosened Hamas' control over the north, but Israel is still carrying out 
airstrikes and targeted operations in the area against what it says are 
reorganizing militants, most prominently at Gaza's main hospital, Shifa, which 
is in ruins after a two-week raid and fighting last month.

   Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that 
Palestinians should stay in southern Gaza, where they have been told to 
shelter, because the north is a "dangerous combat zone."

   People appeared to be heeding the new warning, especially after the violence 
on Sunday.

   Hospital authorities in Gaza said that five people were killed by Israeli 
forces while trying to travel north to their homes. Their bodies were taken to 
the Awda hospital in the urban Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, hospital records 
showed. A further 54 were wounded in the incident, the records showed.

   The Israeli military had no immediate comment and the precise circumstances 
behind the deaths were not immediately clear.

   Anaam Mohammad, who was displaced from the northern city of Beit Hanoun and 
was trying to return, said the military was allowing women and children to 
cross, but when a group of Palestinians did not make room for them to pass, two 
tanks arrived and opened fire. Forces also threw smoke bombs, dispersing the 
crowd.

   "People started to run away. People were afraid and could not take the risk 
and enter a dangerous area," she said.

   Ahead of the violence Sunday, throngs of people crowded a coastal road and 
moved north by foot and donkey cart. The returnees said they were prompted to 
make the dangerous journey because they were fed up with the difficult 
conditions they are forced to live under while displaced.

   "We want our homes. We want our lives. We want to return, whether with a 
truce or without a truce," said Um Nidhal Khatab, who was displaced from the 
north.

   Northern Gaza and the return of its population is a key sticking point 
between Israel and Hamas in negotiations underway to try to bring about a 
cease-fire in exchange for the release of hostages taken by the militant group. 
Israel wants to try to delay the return to prevent militants from regrouping in 
the north, while Hamas says it wants a free flow of returnees.

   The war has had a staggering toll on civilians in Gaza, with most of the 
territory's 2.3 million people displaced by the fighting and living in dire 
circumstances, with little food and often in tents and no end in sight to their 
misery. Large swaths of the urban landscape have been damaged or destroyed, 
leaving many displaced Palestinians with nowhere to return to.

   Six months of fighting in Gaza have pushed the tiny Palestinian territory 
into a humanitarian crisis, leaving more than 1 million people on the brink of 
starvation.

   Famine is said to be imminent in the hard-hit north, where aid has struggled 
to reach because of the fighting. Israel has opened a new crossing for aid 
trucks into the north as it ramps up aid deliveries to the besieged enclave. 
However, the United Nations says the surge of aid is not being felt in Gaza 
because of persistent distribution difficulties.

   The U.N. food agency on Monday said it managed to deliver fuel and wheat 
flour to a bakery in isolated Gaza City in the north for the first time since 
the war started.

   The conflict started on Oct. 7, when Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis, mostly 
civilians, in a surprise attack and incursion into southern Israel. Around 250 
people were seized as hostages by the militants and taken to Gaza. A deal in 
November freed about 100 hostages, leaving about 130 in captivity, although 
Israel says about a quarter of those are dead.

   Israeli bombardments and ground offensives in Gaza have killed more than 
33,700 Palestinians and wounded over 76,200, the Gaza Health Ministry says. The 
ministry doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants in its tally, 
but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.

   Israel says it has killed over 12,000 militants during the war, but it has 
not provided evidence to back up the claim.