Star Metro - Gaza civil defence says dozens killed in Israeli strikes

Israel has launched a major air and ground offensive on Gaza City in a bid to root out Hamas after nearly two years of war.

The United Nations estimated at the end of August that around one million people lived in Gaza City and its surroundings, where it has declared a famine.

The Israeli military says roughly 550,000 people have since fled the city and moved southward, while Gaza's civil defence agency -- a rescue force operating under Hamas authority -- puts the number at around 450,000.

Thaer Saqr, 39, told AFP on Wednesday he had left the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City the day before to head southwards with his wife, children and sister.

"The tanks on the coastal road... opened fire on us, and my sister was killed," he said.

Saqr said he returned to Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital and "will not leave, even if they kill us all."

"I appeal to the world: help us. I say to Israel: you want us to evacuate, but how can we when we have no shekels, no transportation, and no place?"

The civil defence agency said that "hundreds of families" had been sleeping on the ground for days after fleeing from northern Gaza, unable to secure temporary shelter.

- 'Pitiful sight' -

The civil defence said Israeli forces killed 40 people in attacks across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, including 22 killed by three air strikes on a warehouse sheltering displaced people near the Firas market in Gaza City.

The agency's spokesman, Mahmud Bassal, said the dead included six women and nine children.

When asked for comment by AFP, the Israeli military said it was "looking into it."

Media restrictions in the territory and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the details provided by the civil defence or the Israeli military.

AFP footage following the attack showed a scene of devastation, with Palestinians combing through large piles of rubble and warped metal as two men carried away a body wrapped in tattered blankets.

In the aftermath, sobbing women knelt over their loved ones, hugging their lifeless bodies wrapped in white shrouds.

At least six bodies were laid out on the ground, including two the size of children.

Mohammed Hajjaj, who lost his relatives, told AFP that "heavy bombing" hit the building while people were asleep.

"We came and found children and women torn apart. It was a pitiful sight."

- 'Death was near' -

Israel launched its US-backed ground offensive on Gaza City earlier in September in a bid to seize the urban hub and crush Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

The military has told Palestinians to relocate to a "humanitarian area" in the coastal area of Al-Mawasi in the south, where it says aid, medical care and humanitarian infrastructure will be provided.

Israel first declared the area a safe zone early in the war, but has carried out repeated strikes on it since, saying it is targeting Hamas.

Mahmud al-Dreimly, 44, said he gone with his family a day earlier to live in a tent in Gaza City's Al-Rimal neighbourhood.

"I saw tanks firing into the air and sometimes at people," he told AFP, adding: "I felt death was near".

Dreimly said he saw tanks in the Tel al-Hawa and Al-Sabra neighbourhoods, as well as on the outskirts of Al-Rimal.

The launch of the ground assault came as a UN probe accused Israel of committing "genocide" in the Gaza Strip.

Israel rejected the findings and slammed the probe as "distorted and false".

Over nearly two years, Israeli military operations have killed at least 65,419 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, figures the UN considers reliable.

Hamas's attack that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

S.Cloutier--SMC