The battle for the Al Shujaiyia starts again. Israeli troops under aircover and aerial bombardment are entering the destroyed town that lies east of Gaza City.
This is the third round of entry by the Israeli army, seeing the town as a sore thumb, and a degrading one at that. Al Shujaiyia, which lies one kilometer away from the siege into Israel, holds bad memories for the Israeli army.
It is here where Israel killed three of the hostages that were held there back in December, 2023. Despite the three holding white flags and shouting in Hebrew, they were shot point-blank.
Today it invades the ruined town despite the rubble and the wreckage. There are no homes here, but people have refused to leave, making do with what they have, living on their bomb-created homes.
The Israeli army says its invading the town once again because of their intelligence sources saying there are Palestinian resistance fighters here.
But in reality, Al Shujaiyia has always remained a resistance territory. It is the grave of Israeli soldiers. In the first hours of their entry, Israeli troops faced at least 10 military operations against them by Hamas and Saraya Al Quds fighters.
The drainage of Israeli troop and hardware losses continued with news of one Merkava 4-tank blown up as well as troop carrier not to say anything about the IED planted bombs unto the Baghdad Road to prevent entry by other Israeli vehicles.
Once historians sit and write the history of this war, they will find Al Shujaiyia has been the toughest for the Israeli army despite the enormous levels of destruction where the fight has been by a modern, professional army with top guns and armour against men in jeans and home-made missiles made from pipe tubes.
The entry of Israeli troops however has caused havoc on the population of Al Shujaiyia who managed up till now to stay in their wrecked homes. This time however, reports of hundreds leaving the neighborhood abound the internet and social media.
This not to say anything about the numbers of those killed and injured. It was reported at least 15 people were killed in the first few hours of troops entering the neighborhood.
As usual Israeli troops – and they know it – will not be able to get to the resistance fighters. All the Israeli army will be doing – and this is a credit to their already soured professionalism – is create more death, injury, displacement among the civilian population.
Marwan Asmar is a Amman-based writer covering Middle East Affairs
