Palestinians fleeing sites of Israel’s renewed military operation in northern Gaza are being shot at as they evacuate, according to residents there and footage shared with CNN documenting their journey.
Mohammad Sultan, 28, said he and his family fled their house in Jabalya in northern Gaza “due to the intense and continuous bombardments in the area.” When he went back to retrieve food, water and blankets, he and other civilians were fired at, he said.
“Drones were firing at everyone passing by on the road,” Sultan told CNN. “Three people were shot right in front of me. My brother and I tried to help the injured get to the hospitals, but a little girl was shot in the neck, and her father was also injured.”
The shooting took place at Abu Sharkh roundabout in Jabalya, according to Sultan. CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment.
Footage taken by Sultan during his journey shows residents walking along a sandy road, surrounded by rubble and half-destroyed buildings. Some, including children, are on foot, struggling to walk with heavy bags. Others are on bicycles or tuk-tuks.
Drones can be heard buzzing in the background as the bullwhip-like sound of bullets piercing the air trigger screams and attempts to shelter.
“They are hit, they are hit,” Sultan is heard shouting as he films civilians from a distance. An injured man, bleeding, limps toward him. Another girl is seen sitting in an ambulance, her neck wrapped in blood-soaked gauze that is seeping through the bandage. Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza City later identified her as 9-year-old Dana Nasser, and told CNN she must be admitted to surgery. Her father was shot in the leg, the hospital said.
The Israeli military on Monday issued fresh evacuation orders in both northern and southern Gaza, where tens of thousands of Palestinians have been sheltering. In northern Gaza, the military said it is “currently operating with great force in the area” and told residents to move to Al Mawasi, a southern region designated as a so-called humanitarian zone that is already crammed with refugees.
A day earlier, Israel’s military said it had encircled Jabalya as it launched a new ground operation there amid efforts by Hamas to “rebuild its operational capabilities in the area.”
Hamas’s military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, said on Monday it was engaged in “fierce fights” with Israeli forces in northern Gaza.
Flyers were dropped by the Israeli military over Jabalya Tuesday morning, “urgently” warning residents to “evacuate immediately,” residents told CNN.
The renewed fighting comes on the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks by Hamas.
Gunfire at ‘anything that moves’
Hassan Hamad, a resident of Jabalya, was killed this week in his home in Jabalya, his aunt Itaf told CNN. She decided to stay in the city to collect his remains and give him a dignified burial. After months of documenting Israel’s offensive in Jabalya,18-year-old Hamad was killed when his family’s apartment was hit in an Israeli missile attack in the city’s refugee camp on Sunday, according to witness testimony and footage shared with CNN.
Gunfire and shelling have stopped his aunt from leaving the house in search of her nephew’s remains, which were scattered around the area after the assault, she told CNN.
“We stayed in the house to search for the remaining body parts of Hassan, but now we cannot go out due to the intensity of the shelling and gunfire,” the 58-year-old said, adding the gunfire targets “anything that moves.”
Itaf spoke to CNN on the phone from her home in Jabalya, where shelling could be heard in the background.
“We try to stay away from the windows, so they won’t shoot at us,” she said.
Residents say the fighting in Jabalya has been some of the most intense in recent days.
Mohammad Ibrahim, a resident of the city who decided to stay in his home with his two sons, said the explosions outside his house were so intense they “shook” his body.
“I felt as though my body was tearing apart,” Ibrahim told CNN, adding that the firing is more intense than it was at the outset of the war.
From his window, Ibrahim said he could see smoke billowing between abandoned apartment buildings. “Anyone who wants to leave the north to Gaza wants death,” he said.
Jabalya has been targeted several times during the war, and like many other parts of Gaza, its residents say they don’t know where to go for shelter.
“We are living in the Stone Age,” Ibrahim said. “There is no conscience, no humanity, no human rights.”
