In an unprecedented development, an armed gang active in Gaza City forced inhabitants of residential bloc to evacuate their homes under threat of arms.
Field sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that identified the gang as the “Rami Halas Group”. At dawn on Thursday, its members opened fire in the air in the Hayy al-Tuffah neighborhood in eastern Gaza City. The area is located near Israel’s so-called yellow line that separates Hamas- and Israel-held parts of Gaza.
The gang members came back hours later at noon and demanded that the residents evacuate, giving them until sunset to comply and threatening to shoot anyone who doesn’t.
The sources said the gunmen did not directly approach any of the residents for fear of being attacked. They used loudspeakers to demand that they evacuate to areas a few hundred meters away, claiming these were Israeli orders.
Israeli forces are deployed some 150 meters from the area where the residents were located.
The residents, who had only just returned to their homes after the ceasefire, indeed started to evacuate towards western parts of Gaza City.
The sources said over 240 residents were forced to quit what remains of their damaged homes.
They revealed that Israeli forces had on Tuesday and Wednesday night dropped yellow barrels, devoid of explosives, in those regions. They did not ask residents to evacuate.
The sources said the gang made the evacuation order ahead of Israel’s plan to occupy the area, which had been previously declared as safe.
They accused Israeli forces of resorting to such tactics in recent weeks to further expand the yellow line border and occupy more areas in Gaza.
