GAZA CITY, Palestine 

Israeli military vehicles on Friday resumed their advance in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood, southwest of Gaza City, just hours after retreating from the area following a military operation launched four days ago.

Eyewitnesses told Anadolu that Israeli army forces advanced once more toward the vicinity of Al-Quds Hospital, Barcelona Park, and the Abu Mazen Junction in the Tel Al-Hawa neighborhood.

Army forces fired machine guns and artillery shells at Palestinians and their homes, they said.

Witnesses reported that the army retreated from the industrial area and the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood on Thursday, repositioning in the western areas near the Abu Mazen roundabout and the chalets area.

The Israeli army's partial retreat from the southwestern Gaza area, four days after launching a military operation -- the fourth since the war on the strip began -- revealed dozens of bodies scattered on the roads and under the rubble of destroyed homes, as well as the burning and destruction of hundreds of homes.

Medical sources at the Baptist Hospital told Anadolu that at least 56 bodies had been recovered from the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood and the industrial area after the Israeli army withdrawal.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.

Over 38,300 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 88,300 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Nine months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi in Ankara