Families flee as Israeli troops storm Gaza City neighbourhood

A Palestinian baby wounded in an Israeli strike receives treatment at a hospital in Gaza City yesterday. Photo: Reuters/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Nidal al-Mughrabi

Israel stormed a neighbourhood in Gaza City yesterday, ordering Palestinians to move south as the tanks rolled in and bombing the southern city of Rafah in what it says are the final stages of an operation against Hamas militants there.

Residents of the Shejaiya neighbourhood in Gaza City said they were taken by surprise by the sound of tanks approaching and firing in the early afternoon, with drones also attacking after overnight bombing of the city, which Israel had combed early in the war.