The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have launched a fresh ground and air assault on Shejaiya and its surrounding areas in the northern Gaza Strip, where residents have spoken of heavy bombardment.

The IOF ordered the neighborhood's residents to "evacuate immediately south on Salah al-Din Street".

Footage published by Reuters shows women, men and children carrying bags and food as they ran in the streets of the neighborhood in Gaza City after the raid began.

Men could be seen carrying injured children, some bleeding, in their arms as they fled.

"This is the (Israeli) occupation targeting us, as you can see. You can see the children, the targeting of children here," a man carrying a bleeding boy in his arms told the news agency.

Israeli military officials have confirmed that the IOF has launched a new invasion in the neighborhood, saying dozens of "Hamas sites were struck from the air as ground forces pushed in".

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly declared its objective in Gaza is to eliminate Hamas.

Analysts say the IOF is failing to defeat the armed Palestinian resistance in Gaza and specifically in places like Shejaiya.

There are multiple armed resistance movements in the Palestinian region and experts say all Gazan men, in possession of light arms, are defending the enclave from the nearly nine-month Israeli invasion.

The heavy bombing of Shejaiya and the tanks that have rolled into the neighborhood of Gaza City is tantamount to the failure of the IOF to defeat the Palestinian resistance.

This is despite the Israeli military dropping the highest number of munitions on the tiny and besieged enclave in modern history.

Shejaiya itself has turned into a symbol of the IOF's failure.

Sitting close to the heavily fortified Israeli fence that separates Gaza from much of the world, the neighborhood, which is six square kilometers small, was among the first areas that Tel Aviv carpet bombed at the start of the war on October 7, 2023.

On December 12, Hamas carried out a deadly ambush against the IOF in Shejaiya, killing at least ten Israeli special forces and injuring many others. A Namar armored personnel carrier was also destroyed, killing Israeli colonel Yitzhak Ben-Bashat.

Commander of the Golani Battalion, Ben-Bashat is widely believed to be among the four highest-ranking Israeli commanders to be killed so far in the Gaza war.

The neighborhood is also the same place where the IOF shot and killed three Israeli captives at point-blank range on December 15, despite the captives shouting in Hebrew and emerging from a building with their shirts off and hands in the air.

On April 11, the IOF announced that its "troops conducted precise operational activities in the area of Shejaiya in northern Gaza Strip", claiming to have "eliminated" resistance fighters and "infrastructure".

This all comes despite Tel Aviv declaring victory on a regular basis since October 7 in Gaza City and its neighborhoods, in particular Shejaiya.

As the genocidal war approaches its ninth month, the Israeli army is back in the same area, killing civilians once more amid intensive bombardment.

According to Al Jazeera, children have been killed in the latest invasion. The bodies of dead civilians are being pulled from the rubble of collapsed buildings, while the dead and wounded have been left lying on the ground.

Thousands of civilians have been forced to flee over the past 24 hours.

But Hamas doesn’t appear to be anywhere close to the verge of defeat.

On Friday, the armed wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam Brigades, announced on its Telegram channel operations against the IOF in Shejaiya.

These included the "targeting of an Israeli Merkava 4 tank with an explosive device".

The targeting of an Israeli Namer armored personnel carrier with a Yassin 105 shell resulted in its “incineration and the killing of those inside it".

A "second Israeli Namer was targeted" with a Yassin 105 shell.

"A gathering of enemy soldiers were targeted with an RBG shell in the Tel Al-Hawa neighborhood south of Gaza City," Al-Qassam added.