At least seven civilians were killed and dozens injured in intensive Israeli bombardment of the Shejaiya neighborhood in Gaza City on Thursday, the Civil Defense Agency said.
"Seven martyrs and dozens of injured were admitted to the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City," spokesman Mahmoud Basal told Anadolu.
"There are many dead people still on the roads and inside homes," he said, adding that civil defense teams were unable to reach the site to "retrieve the martyrs and the injured" due to the intensity of the Israeli bombardment.
"The situation is difficult and painful amid shelling and bombardment of populated areas," Basal said.
The Israeli army early Thursday asked all residents of the eastern neighborhoods of Gaza City to evacuate.
"For your safety, you must immediately evacuate southward on Salah al-Din Street to the humanitarian area," military spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X.
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian group Hamas.
More than 37,700 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and over 86,400 others injured, according to local health authorities.
Over eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
