Half of Jabalia ethnically cleansed by Israeli army as schools burned and men kidnapped
Displaced families ethnically cleansed by the Israeli army attacks from Jabalia in northern Gaza take the main Salah al-Din road towards Gaza City on 23 October 2024
Lubna Masarwa in Jerusalem and Maha Hussaini in Deir al-Balah report in Middle East Eye on 23 October 2024:
Israeli troops are going school to school in Jabalia and nearby areas to forcibly remove unarmed, starved and besieged Palestinian civilians from their homes as the military campaign to ethnically cleanse north Gaza nears its third week, eyewitnesses have told Middle East Eye.
Under the cover of heavy air strikes and artillery shelling, large Israeli ground forces directly and systematically attack homes and buildings used as shelters by displaced families, forcing everyone out at gunpoint. The buildings, including UN schools and houses, are subsequently either razed or burned by Israeli soldiers to prevent people from returning.
Troops then separate men from women, before taking them to humiliating field interrogations and later abducting many of them to unknown locations.
Women and children are forced to head south of Jabalia refugee camp. Some were bombed and killed as they fled, according to media reports. Refusing to comply with Israeli orders, many of them went west of Jabalia to Beit Lahia while others arrived at the nearest points in the adjacent Gaza City.
Hasan*, a resident of the north Gaza, said he saw scores of bodies strewn across the streets in Jabalia as civil defence teams and paramedics were prevented by Israeli forces from rescuing the wounded. “This is a genocide. They’re starving people, blockading people. There are still tens of thousands of people here in Jabalia,” he told MEE.
The Israeli military launched its latest offensive on north Gaza on 5 October, claiming it was rooting out Hamas fighters who had regrouped there. Hundreds of Palestinians are reported to have been killed since, and tens of thousands displaced.
Local reporters estimate nearly of half of north Gaza, which was home to over 100,000 people before the war, have been removed from their homes so far, warning the rest could face a similar fate in coming days.
The offensive began after a controversial proposal named the “Generals’ Plan” was presented to the Israeli government, which would see areas north of the Netzarim Corridor, which cuts Gaza in two, emptied of its residents so Israel could establish a “closed military zone”.