شمال غزة: إسرائيل تجبر الفلسطينيين على الخروج في موكب الموت، وتضعهم في حفر

Since Oct. 6, the Israeli Occupation Forces have closed in on northern Gaza, intensifying the siege, displacement, and slaughter of Palestinians within the targeted areas of Jabalia, Beit Lahiya, and Beit Hanoun. The IOF has murdered at least 770 Palestinians in the North during this latest wave of heightened colonial violence, as reported by Al Jazeera. 

As the siege in the north enters its third week, hospitals and medical staff are inundated with countless injured and dead. Due to the escalated brutality of the Zionist regime, Palestinian officials in Gaza have stated: “We cannot count the number of those killed. The numbers are terrifying.” 

In the same timeframe, all three northern hospitals still in partial operation have been shelled and put under forced evacuation orders by the IOF. The targeting of hospitals is not only unlawful but creates a horrific ripple effect, as hospitals have doubled as shelters for the displacedsince the onset of the genocide. 

The constant massacres committed by the Israeli regime – paired with man-made famine and forced displacement – have created a dead end for everyone in Gaza, with no chance of relief in sight.

Still, journalists work to document the reality in the North. Earlier this week, prominent Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif shared photos of Palestinian men and children being rounded up in Jabalia. The mass detainment occurred right outside the Indonesian Hospital, one of the aforementioned hospitals targeted for destruction by the IOF. Footage shows Palestinians surrounded by tanks and forced to march before being arbitrarily detained. 

Further reports from Jabalia describe a deep hole prepared near the Indonesian hospital, in which Palestinians were made to sit in, blindfolded and handcuffed. Photojournalist Yousef Labad reported a testimony from a Palestinian mother in Jabalia. She recounted that the IOF took children away from their mothers and put them in a pit. A military tank then drove around, pushing sand and dust into the hole as the children and their mothers screamed. The mother then told Labad that soldiers afterwards grabbed each child and tossed them randomly at the women. Whoever caught a child was ordered to leave immediately. She said that many mothers ended up carrying children who were not their own, leaving their children in the hands of other women. Those not kidnapped and detained have again been forced into displacement. Zionist forces have continued their mass ethnic cleansing campaign in the North, emptying out refugee shelters and forcing women and children to leave southward, under IOF bombardment.

Amid the attacks in Jabalia, Israeli airstrikes also targeted residential blocks in Beit Lahiya , killing and wounding over 100 people. Toronto-based journalist Samira Mohyeddin weighed in on reports from her colleagues in Gaza, writing, “​​Every time I think ‘this is the most horrific thing I’ve ever seen,’ Israel creates a new hell. The footage from Northern Gaza tonight is soul-crushing. Singed skin. Sinew. Intestines. Twisted limbs and rubble. Child after child after child, all piled among one another.”

On Oct. 22, Anas al-Sharif updated Middle East Eye on the dire situation in Beit Lahiya. Al-Sharif reported that over 150,000 people are currently located in Beit Lahiya, displaced from surrounding areas. He added that the IOF is using forced displacement to create densely populated areas and conduct an extermination campaign, also known as “kill zones.” 

As journalists have reiterated over the last year, news and images that make their way out of Gaza barely scratch the surface and extent of the horrors taking place. 

Euro-Med Monitor released a statement covering the atrocities of the past month, further adding “that the international community, including the UN, is complicit in the most heinous of crimes—genocide—because the vast majority of its members have not moved to actually put a stop to what is happening.”

As a result of the international community’s complicity in the  Zionist killing machine, Israel has felt empowered enough to publicly target Gaza’s few remaining journalists, after deliberately murdering their colleagues. Israeli authorities released the names of six Palestinian journalists who remain in the North, declaring them resistance fighters in Gaza, accusing them of affiliating with Hamas and the Islamic Jehad. This is another well-worn myth in the Zionist toolbox: Israel has announced its intention to assassinate these journalists for exposing the extermination campaign in the North, and relies on the Western so-called press among its military stenographers  to manufacture consent for the apparent assassination threat. 

One of the named journalists, Hossam Shabat, called out the declaration as a “blatant and belligerent attempt to transform us, the last witnesses in the North, into killable targets.” He reminds us that this is not a new tactic, writing that “after murdering our colleague Ismail Al Ghoul, Israel released a document that claimed he supposedly received a military ranking on July 1, 2007, when he would have been a 10 year old child.”

If there was still need for further indication of how perilous the situation in the North is, this week the Palestinian Civil Defense halted all operations in North Gaza for the first time since the commencement of the genocide. Hundreds of thousands of people are now left without any humanitarian services. The announcement comes after the IOF kidnapped five Civil Defense personnel, and targeted the last standing fire truck in the northern sector of Gaza.

In a recent report, the UN found that the genocide has set Gaza back nearly 70 years, dating back almost to the time of the original Nakba. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini also shared his sentiment on the current escalations, writing: “In northern Gaza, people are just waiting to die. They feel deserted, hopeless, and alone. They live from one hour to the next, fearing death at every second.” 

The world can simply no longer ignore the Zionist game plan to eradicate any sign of Palestinian life in Gaza. Zionism, by definition, has proven itself to be a program of  systematic starvation, displacement, and murder of Palestinians.