They returned to northern Gaza, but were ordered to evacuate again

Early in the war against Hamas, as Israeli forces pushed their way from the north of the Gaza Strip to the south, a neighborhood in Gaza City called Shajaiye loomed large in the battle. Nine soldiers were killed there in December, on what the Israeli army said was one of the deadliest days of the war for its forces.

Later, as Shajaiye was destroyed and Gaza City appeared pacified, the soldiers moved on, eventually taking the fight to Gaza’s southernmost city, Rafah, described as Hamas’s last major stronghold. In turn, Palestinian civilians who had fled the fighting in Gaza City began to find their way back.

They went on the run again on Thursday.

Israel ordered people to evacuate a section of eastern Gaza City as Palestinian officials and residents reported heavy strikes and multiple casualties. People in the area described a frantic attempt to get out as explosions rang out around them. Palestinian officials said the strikes hit Shajaiye.

On Friday, the Israeli military announced it had launched an operation in Shajaiye targeting Hamas fighters and infrastructure. The UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs said this that 60,000 to 80,000 people were displaced overnight east and northeast of Gaza City.

Mohammad al-Bahrawi, 65, who returned with his family to their home in Shajaiye months ago, said on Thursday: “We heard explosions from all sides.” He said there was a “flood” of people being sent fleeing.

“I couldn’t even believe there were so many people still in Shajaiye,” Mr al-Bahrawi said.

The operation is part of a larger pattern of war in which Israel has struggled to achieve its stated goal: rooting out Hamas, which organized and led the October 7 attacks on Israeli territory that sparked the war in Gaza.

Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to parts of Gaza they had previously abandoned, especially in the north, as Hamas regroups amid the anarchy of the nine-month war. Fighting has flared even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talks of a new, less intense phase.

Frustration is growing within Israel and globally over what critics call Netanyahu’s failure to present a plan for governing Gaza if Hamas is defeated.

Daniel Byman, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, said the key to defeating a counter-insurgency is known by the acronym “clear, hold, build.”

The Israelis “have been thinking about Day 1 — killing the bad guys — but have not focused on the next steps,” Mr. Byman said. “That was inexcusable even in October and November. There is less and less excuse now.”

Gaza health authorities reported on Thursday that 15 people had been killed and dozens injured in Shajaiye. The Palestinian emergency service Civil Defense reported that five houses had been hit in Shajaiye and another neighborhood, and a search was underway for missing persons. The death toll could not be independently verified.

Mohammed Qraiqea, a researcher with the advocacy group Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, who was in Shajaiye, witnessed what he described as artillery shelling, airstrikes and drone fire on Thursday. He also said he had seen Israeli tanks on the eastern edge of Gaza City.

“The tanks have so far only advanced to the outskirts,” he said Thursday afternoon. By then, he said, most people had been evacuated.

Israeli forces invaded northern Gaza in October, taking over territory and moving south as they took over Hamas strongholds, but have not yet definitively defeated the armed group. Shajaiye, one of Gaza City’s largest neighborhoods, is home to a battalion considered one of the strongest in Hamas’s military wing. It is unclear how large Hamas’s presence there is now.

Seth Krummrich, a retired U.S. Army colonel and vice chairman of Global Guardian, an international security services provider, joined critics who said Israel is struggling because it has failed to come up with a plan for governing Gaza.

“They have a much bigger problem in front of them than behind them,” Mr. Krummrich said. “The real problem is to fix Gaza and make it stable in the future.”

Myra Nieuwenhuis contributed to the reporting from Jerusalem.