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Gaza. Screenshot. Published by IMEMC News

Displaced Palestinians taking the coastal Rashid road as they attempt to return to Gaza City pass through Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, on April 14, 2024. (AFP) Published by The Times of Israel (TOI)

Displaced Palestinians taking the coastal Rashid road as they attempt to return to Gaza City pass through Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, on April 14, 2024. (AFP) Published by The Times of Israel (TOI)

A child empties a container filled with dirty water at a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on April 14, 2024. (AFP) Published by The Times of Israel (TOI)
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by IMEMC News
April 14, 2024

On Sunday, day 191 of the Israeli assault on Gaza that has killed over 33,000 and wounded over 76,000 civilians, Israeli forces bombarded different parts of the Gaza Strip, killing dozens of Palestinian civilians.

Five civilians were killed and others were injured on Sunday evening after Israeli warplanes targeted a house northwest of Nuseirat camp, in the central Gaza Strip.

According to local sources, the occupation warplanes bombed a house belonging to the Al-Arabi family northwest of Al-Nuseirat camp, killing five citizens and injuring dozens, and bombed a mosque in the camp and flattened it. In addition, the occupation artillery shelled the Assar Tower in Nuseirat.

Local medical teams indicated that the bodies of a number of Palestinian civilians were found under the sand mounds erected by the occupation army in the Beit Lahia project, north of the Gaza Strip, noting that the bodies of 4 Palestinians were recovered from different areas in Khan Yunis since Sunday morning.

updated from:

Day 191: Israel Fires at Displaced Refugees Returning Home

Published on: Apr 14, 2024 at 20:27

On Sunday, day 191 of the Israeli assault on Gaza that has killed over 33,000 and wounded over 76,000 civilians, Israeli troops opened fire on hundreds of Palestinian civilians who were following Israeli instructions to follow the al-Rasheed Street from the south to the north on foot.

Five civilians, including a woman, were killed and 23 others were injured, on Sunday, as a result of the Israeli artillery targeting displaced people on Al-Rasheed Street while they were trying to return to the northern Gaza Strip.

Local sources said that the Israeli occupation forces, positioned near Al-Rasheed Street, fired artillery shells, fire and poison gas canisters at the displaced people while they were trying to return to Gaza City, killing five of them and wounding at least 23.

Hundreds of Palestinians, starving in tents in Rafah, where they had been earlier displaced, were told they could return to see what was left of their homes in Gaza City. Hundreds were trying to return to northern Gaza through the Wadi Gaza Bridge on al-Rasheed Street when Israeli forces opened fire on the crowd. This is just the latest in numerous massacres carried out by Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians who were trying to follow the instructions of the Israeli military – including the ‘Flour Massacre’ several weeks ago, in which hundreds of Palestinian civilians were gunned down by Israeli troops when trying to retrieve flour on aid trucks in northern Gaza.

Social media pages had reported that the Israeli occupation forces had said they would allow the displaced to return to the northern Gaza Strip, but the civilians were surprised by the Israeli occupation shooting at them and targeting them with artillery shells on Al-Rasheed Street on their way back to the north.

As soon as news crept in that the Israelis would open the newly-established checkpoint in the middle of Gaza, thousands of displaced people rushed from their tents packing their belongings to return to their homes.

The coastal road in the western Gaza Strip was jammed with trucks, buses, vehicles of various sizes, and carts drawn by animals, carrying tens of thousands of citizens eager to return to their homes in the northern part of the Strip.

About one and a half million civilians have been displaced from the Gaza City and northern governorates over the past six months of Israeli bombardment and destruction, and have traveled to the south of the Gaza Strip following the Israeli military’s orders.

On the sidewalk, ‘Etaf Abu Sa’id sat with six children and boys, each carrying his bag or plastic bag with some clothes, food, and necessities.

She told the Wafa correspondent that she was waiting for a car to transport her to the Wadi Gaza area on the coastal road to reach her home in the Sheikh Radwan area of Gaza City, adding that as soon as she heard news about the return of some civilians, she packed up a little of what she had and decided to return without thinking twice. She told the correspondent with Wafa news agency that even if the news is unconfirmed, she will not wait until confirmation.

“I miss our house, our bed, and our kitchen. We are disgusted and distracted by a life of displacement,” she said.

Amid the crowd of passengers in the trunk of a truck, Mohammed al-Katri was one of the most eager to return home to the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. He said he was returning alone to explore the road and bury his son if he could pass.

“I want to bury my son, he was killed in an aerial bombardment five months ago and he is still under the rubble, I want to smell the dirt he embraced,” Katri told the Wafa news correspondent.

In an inconclusive toll, the number of martyrs since the start of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip on October 7 has reached at least 33,729, in addition to 76,371 injuries, while thousands of victims remain under the rubble.
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Gazans flood road to north after rumors of lifted checkpoint; IDF denies opening

Army reiterates that Palestinians remain barred from moving to northern part of Strip as it’s ‘still a combat zone,’ after ‘false reports’ claimed residents could go home

By AFP and Times of Israel (TOI) STAFF
4/15/2024, 1:11 am

Thousands of Gazans flooded the coast road north on Sunday after hearing that several people managed to cross a closed checkpoint towards Gaza City, despite Israel denying it was open.

An AFP journalist saw mothers holding their children’s hands and families piling onto donkey carts with their luggage as they made the journey.

They hoped to cross a military checkpoint on al-Rashid road south of Gaza City, but the Israeli army told AFP that reports the route had opened were “not true.”

On the other side, desperate families waited for their loved ones in the rubble of the battered main city in the Palestinian territory.

Mahmoud Awdeh said he was waiting for his wife, who has been in the southern city of Khan Younis since October 7, when Hamas launched a devastating terror onslaught against Israel that sparked the ongoing war.

“She told me over the phone that people are leaving the southern part and heading to the north,” Awdeh said.

“She told me she’s waiting at the checkpoint until the army agrees to let her head to the north,” he said, hoping she would be able to cross safely.

During the day rumors also spread that the Israeli army was allowing women, children and men over 50 to go to the north, a claim denied by the army.

During the day rumors also spread that the Israeli army was allowing women, children and men over 50 to go to the north, a claim denied by the army.

“Further to the reports that IDF forces are allowing the return of residents to the north of the Gaza Strip, these are false reports,” the IDF said in a statement.

“The IDF will not allow the return of residents either through the Salah A-Din axis or through the Rashid axis [the coast]. The northern area of ​​the Gaza Strip is still a combat zone and it will not be possible to return to it,” the military added.

Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, warned Gazans to avoid using the road to the north.

“For your safety, do not approach the forces operating there. The northern Gaza Strip area is still a war zone and we will not allow a return to it,” Adraee wrote in a post on X.

Since Israel launched its offensive in Gaza following the Hamas-led attack atrocities in October, the army has besieged the territory, telling Gazans to leave some areas and preventing them from moving across the narrow Strip.

More than 1.5 million Palestinians have taken refuge in the southern city of Rafah, according to the United Nations.

Several Gazans said they came under attack on the route and AFP footage showed people ducking for cover.

The Palestinian official news agency Wafa accused Israeli forces of having “bomb(ed) displaced Palestinians as they were trying to return to the north of Gaza Strip through Al Rasheed street.”

Wafa shared a video on X which AFP has not verified showing people running away from a blast.

Nour, a displaced Gazan, told AFP: “When we arrived at the (Israeli) checkpoint, they would let women pass or stop them, but they shot at men so we had to return, we didn’t want to die.”

The IDF did not immediately respond to comment on those allegations.

Elsewhere in Gaza, the fighting continued on Sunday after Iran launched a huge drone and missile attack on Israel overnight.

Iran’s first-ever direct assault on Israeli territory came in retaliation for a deadly strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus that killed seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members, including two generals, an attack that Tehran blamed Jerusalem for.

But in Rafah on Sunday, Palestinians told AFP they were underwhelmed by Iran’s attack on Israel.

“The Iranian response came so late, after 190 days of war,” Khaled Al Nems told AFP. “You can see our suffering.”

“Their response is too little too late,” he added.

Walid Al Kurdi, a displaced Palestinian living in Rafah, said that “Iran’s attack on Israel is not really our business.”

“The only thing we care about is going back to our homes,” he said.

“We are waiting for the coming 48 hours to see if (Israel) responds to Iran, or if they are playing with us and want to distract attention away from Rafah.”

Israel has said it plans to send ground forces into Rafah to eradicate the remaining Hamas terrorists there.

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