'Hell and death': Israel sieges al-Moghazi and al-Bureij refugee camps in central Gaza

Since last night, destruction and death shadowed al-Moghazi and al-Bureij refugee camps in central Gaza as the Israeli army carries out a new military assault in the area, local residents told The New Arab. 

On Tuesday, the Israeli army announced that its ground forces had begun a "precise operation" in the Al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

Avichay Adraee, the spokesperson of the army, said in a statement on his account on the X platform that Israeli warplanes were currently launching raids on "terrorist targets" belonging to the Hamas in Al-Bureij.

Adraee claimed that the raids coincide with ground forces carrying out a precise operation under intelligence guidance in Al-Bureij in the central Gaza Strip, noting that additional details will be published later.

Overnight, the Israeli army continued air and ground attacks on the camp, which was already overcrowded as a point of shelter for hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

At least 75 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli raids and more than 100 others were injured, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said in a press statement. 

According to the ministry, the victims were transferred to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, noting that medical teams are facing great difficulty in dealing with the large number of casualties.

The ministry added that the hospital cannot accommodate this large number of victims, especially in light of the lack of fuel needed to operate the generators, as well as the lack of sufficient beds and medical teams to help patients.

Bodies of the dead were piled up in the hospital yard as hundreds of relatives arrived to identify them and bid farewell.

One of them is Ibtisam Jaber; her two children were killed by an Israeli strike that hit their neighbours' house. 

"I tried to escape with my children from the bombing and save them, but the Israeli army insisted on bombing everything in the camp and killing my children," Jaber said to TNA.

"Where is the world in the face of this destruction, this crime, and this Zionist hatred towards us (...) We are Muslims, O Arabs, why don't you save our children from death? Why all this silence about these crimes?" she cried out. 

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of residents of the Al-Bureij and Al-Maghazi refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip fled to areas that might protect them from the avalanche of death by the Israeli army after it began a ground military operation in the area.

Those newly displaced were seen walking dozens of kilometres on foot to escape the ongoing Israeli bombardment and perhaps save their children and women from what they described as "hell."

After two hours of walking, Hanadi Al-Banna, a displaced Palestinian, was able to reach the west of Al-Nuseirat camp and take refuge in a relative's tent to stay in until the end of the military operation in Al-Bureij camp.

"We are very tired of this war. We no longer have the energy to survive or continue living. No one has mercy on us and no one protects us,"  the 25-year-old mother of two remarked to TNA. "The situation is tragic and catastrophic. There is no safe place in the Strip, and we do not even have hope that this catastrophic war will end soon."

The same despair was articulated by Fathia Al-Arabid, a displaced Palestinian from Al-Moghazi camp, despite her being lucky enough to survive an Israeli bombardment that targeted a house next to hers.

"I may have survived this time, but I do not know what will happen in the coming days," Al-Arabid said. "We have been living in a real hell for more than eight months, with no hope of survival for long."

Since 7 October, Israel has been launching a large-scale war on the Gaza Strip after Hamas led a military attack on Israeli military bases and civilian settlements within and around the Gaza envelop, killing about 1,190 people and capturing about 240 according to Israeli authorities. 

Israeli indiscriminate attacks on the coastal enclave killed more than 36,500 Palestinians and wounded about 83,000, mostly women and children, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.