Since Oct. 6, the Israeli Occupation Forces have closed in on northern Gaza, intensifying the siege, displacement, and killing of Palestinians within the targeted areas of Jabalia, Beit Lahiya, and Beit Hanoun. The IOF has murdered at least 770 Palestinians in the North, 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. Palestinian officials in Gaza have stated: “We cannot count the number of those killed. The numbers are terrifying.”
All three northern hospitals still in partial operation have been shelled and put under forced evacuation orders by the IOF.
Earlier this week, prominent Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif shared photos of Palestinian men and children being rounded up in Jabalia. The mass detention 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.
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 the 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.”
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.
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 added 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.”
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.”
