Israeli forces struck tents sheltering displaced families west of Gaza City on Wednesday evening after ordering residents to evacuate by phone, witnesses told Al Manassa.
The attack hit Ansar camp, where about 400 displaced families were staying, and destroyed dozens of tents despite a ceasefire that has continued to be breached by Israeli strikes, according to residents and Gaza health authorities.
The camp was hit twice within five minutes, first by a reconnaissance drone and then by a warplane.
A witness told Al Manassa that one of the displaced people in the camp received a call from the Israeli military ordering all the tents evacuated. “An hour after the Ramadan iftar time, we still hadn’t even managed to break our fast when we heard someone shouting that all the tents had to be cleared because the army was going to bomb the camp,” he said.
The witness, who asked not to be named, added, “People started running, children, women, elderly people, everyone running through the streets not understanding what had happened, until we realized the army had called and said we had to leave because it was going to bomb the place. We left the tents, our belongings, our bedding, everything, and the families spread out in the streets around the camp.”
About 15 minutes after the call, and after residents had fled, the Israeli military struck the middle of the camp with a missile fired from a reconnaissance drone. Five minutes later, another strike hit one of the tents directly, destroying dozens of tents in the blast.
Umm Ghassan, a displaced woman in her 40s, told Al Manassa that her family lost its home east of Gaza City and cannot return because the Israeli military controls the neighborhood where they lived, forcing them into a tent that they also lost in the latest strike.
She added, “Where are we supposed to go? We’ve spent months in the tent. All our bedding, our belongings, and my children’s clothes were in the tent and are gone. Where are we supposed to get them back from? Where are we supposed to find money and buy basic needs for sleeping and clothing every few months?”
She continued, “The occupation is still chasing us as civilians, and every time we try to get back on our feet, it destroys our lives. The shelling still hasn’t stopped,” despite the ceasefire agreement signed five months ago in October.
Earlier Wednesday, in a separate strike, an Israeli reconnaissance drone killed a young man with a direct missile near the Haidar Abdel Shafi roundabout west of Gaza City, killing him instantly and wounding five passersby with shrapnel, according to a medical source at Al-Shifa Hospital who spoke to Al Manassa.
Another witness, who also asked not to be named, told Al Manassa that the targeted man was from the Abu Warda family and from Jabaliya camp in the northern Gaza Strip, and had been displaced with his family to western Gaza City. He said the man was standing near a stall selling household goods when the missile hit.
He added that the strike took place during peak hours in a crowded area full of residents and displaced people, with no prior warning, scattering the young man’s remains and injuring several passersby. “There was no warning, which means it was a direct assassination. The goal was to kill the young man without any concern for passersby, including children and women. Day after day, the Israeli shelling is increasing, and the truce is only for show. The war, killing, and destruction are still continuing,” he said.
In a related development, the Israeli military said in a statement on X that it had killed two Palestinian resistance fighters in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, which it has controlled militarily for months.
The occupation military claimed the two men “were planning to carry out attacks against its forces in the near term,” and said its troops found underground infrastructure and a cache of weapons in sweeps in the eastern Rafah that it said had been prepared for use in operations against its forces.
The Gaza ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10, but Israeli strikes on homes and tents sheltering displaced people have continued under the pretext of pursuing resistance fighters.
Those attacks have killed 650 people and wounded more than 1,700 others, pushing the overall toll since the start of the assault above 72,000 dead and 171,000 injured, according to the latest statement from the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza on Wednesday.
