Sheikh Hamad laid the foundation stone of the mega project in 2012 during a historic trip to Gaza.
Israeli occupation forces attacked the Qatar-funded “Hamad City”, south of Gaza, on Saturday as it resumed its brutal bombardment of the Strip, Palestine’s news agency (Wafa) reported.
Footage on social media showed the new residential complex being relentlessly bombarded by occupation forces as residents received evacuation orders from Israel via SMS, AFP reported.
Gaza-based journalist Bisan Owda said on her Instagram page that the residential towers in Hamad City were supposed to be the safest areas in the entirety of the Strip.
“Hamad towers are about 40 towers in Khan Yunis in the south, in the west of Khan Yunis, and that means it must be the safest place in the whole Gaza Strip,” Owda said.
“We have been warning you for 57 days they’re [Israeli occupation forces] trying to empty Gaza, they’re trying to push us to the desert. This is emptying the Gaza Strip,” Owda explained, referring to Israel’s reported plans of forcing Gaza’s population to flee to Sinai in neighbouring Egypt.
Named after Qatar’s former leader Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Hamad City is one of the newest projects in Gaza, containing houses, shops and gardens.
Sheikh Hamad had laid the foundation stone of the mega project in 2012 during a historic trip to Gaza, which marked the first such visit by a head of state to the Palestinian enclave.
At the time, Qatar donated about $407 million for Gaza’s reconstruction. The city was later inaugurated in 2016.
Israel had attacked and vandalised Qatar’s consulate in Gaza on November 13.
Images published on social media at the time showed the Qatari Reconstruction Committee building damaged and vandalised by Israeli soldiers who spray-painted the Star of David on the structure.
Qatar’s foreign ministry condemned the bombing of its consulate “in the strongest terms” and described it as “a blatant violation of international law and an extension of the occupation’s approach to targeting civilians and civilian objects”.
The bombardment of the densely-populated Hamad City on Saturday came as the Israeli genocide resumed following the expiration of a temporary truce on December 1. The truce was mediated by Qatar and Egypt with hopes of further reaching a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
However, Israel said on Saturday that it pulled out its negotiators from talks with Qatar, Egypt and the United States over a renewed pause, declaring an impasse in the negotiations.
The Israeli bombardment has killed more than 700 Palestinians within the past 24 hours alone, the Director General of the Government Media Office in Gaza told Al Jazeera on Sunday.
Authorities in Gaza said that Israel killed more than 15,207 Palestinians since the beginning of the war, whereas Euro-Med reported a higher figure of 21,022, including 8,312 children.
The figure has remained disputed ever since Gaza’s collapsed health sector stopped keeping track of the total toll after the ground invasion of Al-Shifa Hospital on November 18.
The Israeli occupation forces advanced deeper into Gaza. Al Jazeera’s East Jerusalem correspondent Alan Fisher said on Sunday that Israel is expanding its ground invasion and is heading towards the south.
On the same day, Israeli airstrikes targeted residential squares in Rafah and the Bureij refugee camp, in the centre of Gaza, Palestine’s news agency (Wafa) reported. Gaza’s health ministry later reported that Israel carried out another massacre in the Jabalia camp where dozens were killed.
