GAZA/BEIRUT: The Zionist military issued new evacuation orders to residents in areas of the eastern Gaza City suburb, setting off a new wave of displacement on Sunday, and a Gaza hospital director was injured in a Zionist drone attack, Palestinian medics said. The new orders for the Shujaiya suburb posted by the Zionist army spokesperson on X on Saturday night were blamed on Palestinian fighters firing rockets from that heavily built-up district in the north of the Gaza Strip.
The rocket volley on Saturday was claimed by Hamas’ armed wing, which said it had targeted the Zionist army base over the border. Footage circulated on social and Palestinian media showed residents leaving Shujaiya on donkey carts and rickshaws, with others, including children carrying backpacks, walking.
Families living in the targeted areas began fleeing their homes after nightfall on Saturday and into Sunday’s early hours, residents and Palestinian media said – the latest in multiple waves of displacement since the war began 13 months ago. In central Gaza, health officials said at least 10 Palestinians were killed in Zionist airstrikes on the urban camps of Al-Maghazi and Al-Bureij since Saturday night.
Adding to the miseries of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, most of whom have been repeatedly displaced, heavy winter rain flooded hundreds of tents across the enclave, spoiling food and sweeping away plastic and cloth sheeting that had protected them against the elements. "We ran in the middle of the night, the rainwater flooded the tent, the food is gone, the kids screamed and I am afraid they will get sick,” Rami, 37, a Gaza City man displaced at a former soccer stadium, told Reuters.
In north Gaza, health officials said a Zionist drone dropped bombs on Kamal Adwan Hospital, injuring its director Hussam Abu Safiya. "This will not stop us from completing our humanitarian mission and we will continue to do this job at any cost,” Abu Safiya said in a video statement circulated by the health ministry on Sunday. "We are being targeted daily. They targeted me a while ago but this will not deter us...,” he said from his hospital bed.
Kamal Adwan is one of three hospitals in north Gaza that are barely operational as the health ministry said Zionist forces have detained and expelled medical staff and prevented emergency medical, food and fuel supplies from reaching them. Residents in three embattled north Gaza towns - Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun - said Zionist forces had blown up hundreds of houses. Palestinians say Israel appears determined to depopulate the area permanently to create a buffer zone along the northern edge of Gaza.
Meanwhile, top EU diplomat Josep Borrell called for an immediate ceasefire in the Zionist-Hezbollah war while on a visit to Lebanon on Sunday, as the group claimed attacks deep into the Zionist entity. The Zionist military said Hezbollah fired around 160 projectiles into the Zionist entity during the day. Some of them were intercepted but others caused damage to houses.
A day after the health ministry said Zionist strikes on Beirut and across Lebanon killed 84 people, state media reported two strikes on Sunday on the capital’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold. The Zionist military said it had attacked "headquarters” of the group "hidden within civilian structures” in south Beirut.
In the Lebanese capital, Borrell held talks with parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, who has led mediation efforts on behalf of ally Hezbollah. "We see only one possible way ahead: An immediate ceasefire and the full implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701,” Borrell said. "Lebanon is on the brink of collapse”, he warned.
While the Lebanese army is not engaged in the Zionist-Hezbollah war, it has suffered multiple fatalities, the latest coming on Sunday. The army said a Zionist strike on a military post killed one soldier and wounded 18 others. Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, said the attack "represents a direct bloody message rejecting all efforts to reach a ceasefire, strengthen the army’s presence in the south, and implement ... 1701”.
Also on Sunday, Hezbollah said it launched attacks using missiles and drones directed at a naval base in the Zionist entity’s south and military sites in the central Tel Aviv area. It said it had "launched, for the first time, an aerial attack using a swarm of strike drones on the Ashdod naval base”, one its deepest targets so far. Hezbollah also said its fighters had launched a volley of missiles at the Glilot military intelligence base on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, a facility it has announced previous attacks against.
Air raid sirens had sounded in several areas, including in the Tel Aviv suburbs. Medical agencies reported that at least 11 people were wounded in the Zionist entity. AFP images from Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv, showed several damaged and burned-out cars, and a house pockmarked by shrapnel. In nearby Rinatya, several houses were damaged. On Sunday, the official National News Agency said "(Zionist) warplanes launched two violent strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs”. AFPTV footage showed grey smoke billowing over the area, with the news agency reporting "massive destruction”.
On a visit to Damascus on Sunday, UN special envoy Geir Pedersen said it was "extremely critical” to achieve regional de-escalation and ensure that "Syria is not further dragged into this”. Israel has intensified its strikes on targets in Syria during its war with Hezbollah. A war monitor said an air raid this week on the city of Palmyra killed 105 people. – Agencies