Why the Israeli army is invading northern Gaza a second time
A smoke plume rises during Israeli bombardment in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, 14 May 2024
Tareq S. Hajjaj reports in Mondoweiss on 14 May 2024:
Families carry their belongings and everything they own in small bags and leave in droves. In the background behind them is thick black smoke, while the sound of shelling, artillery, and intense gunfire never stops. What makes this scene different from all the other stages of this genocidal war is that it is happening in the town of Jabalia and Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza — the place where Israel had declared at the start of the year that Hamas’s military presence had been effectively eliminated.
Five months later, the Israeli army is going back in and launching a large-scale military operation in northern Gaza. It is proceeding in tandem with the invasion of Rafah to the south. One crime to cover up another.
The reason for the second invasion of the north has been plastered on computer and phone screens over the past few days: improbable videos of fighters from the Qassam Brigades (Hamas’s military wing) launching complex attacks on Israeli forces, including rocket and mortar attacks, traps and ambushes of soldiers, and the targeting of tanks. The fact that it is happening now as Israel has started its invasion of Rafah is also not a coincidence.
Resistance factions have been able to regroup and re-situate their fighting from the south to the north. They are thus sending a message to Israel that they still exist in the north contrary to its claims, and that a similar invasion of Rafah would also fail to “dismantle” them.
Analysts on Al Jazeera argue that the resistance is putting pressure on the army by forcing it to return to northern Gaza and divert some of its forces away from Rafah. Haaretz has also confirmed this, reporting that several Israeli army brigades that had been slated to be part of the Rafah operation, such as the 98th Division, is now fighting in Jabalia.
To that end, the Qassam Brigades have employed a number of diverse and qualitative offensive tactics and released videos of their operations. They have used drones for the first time since the end of last November, dropping explosives on top of Merkava tanks. According to an announcement by the Qassam Brigades on May 12, Hamas fighters targeted several tanks in the Zeitoun area east of Gaza City and in the Mabhouh area east of Jabalia, and when soldiers fled the tanks and barricaded themselves in nearby buildings, the fighters reportedly blew up those houses with the soldiers inside them. As of the time of writing, the Qassam Brigades have targeted over ten military vehicles, fired mortar barrages in the Zeitoun neighborhood, carried out sniper operations in the same area, and launched a salvo of rockets from Jabalia that reached Ashkelon.