For the third day in a row, Gaza Governorate is experiencing bloody days as a result of the Israeli army forces’ escalation of genocide and ethnic cleansing operations there.
Since last Thursday, the Israeli army has expanded the scope of the Holocaust, which it began in the North Gaza Governorate on October 5, 2024, to extend south and include the Gaza Governorate.
This threatens a significant increase in the number of Palestinian casualties, according to observers’ warnings, given the large population density in the Gaza Governorate, which currently includes about 550,000 people, representing about a quarter of the Strip’s population, including about 180,000 who were forcibly displaced from the North Governorate as a result of 3 months of the Israeli Holocaust. .
This is what has actually begun to appear in the numbers issued by the government media office in Gaza. According to what the office’s director, Ismail al-Thawabta, told Anadolu Agency, 184 Palestinians were killed and dozens injured through 94 air strikes launched by Israeli warplanes on the Strip during the past 72 hours.
Al-Thawabta pointed out that the majority of the victims were in the Gaza Governorate, and that the governorate also witnessed during this period widespread destruction that affected homes and infrastructure.
Since Saturday morning alone, the Israeli army has killed more than 45 Palestinians during genocide operations in the Gaza Governorate alone, according to Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal to Anadolu.
The ongoing Israeli Holocaust
In their description of the ongoing Israeli Holocaust, eyewitnesses from Gaza Governorate told Anadolu Agency that Israeli warplanes intensified their air attacks, targeting entire residential squares, which led to the destruction of buildings above the heads of their residents.
The witnesses added that the Israeli air attacks came suddenly, resulting in large numbers of casualties, including dead and wounded, and they pointed out that there are still many missing people under the rubble.
One witness told Anadolu that the raids were violent and continuous. We saw with our own eyes how entire buildings were blown up on the heads of their occupants without warning.
The Gaza Strip consists of 5 governorates, from south to north: Rafah, Khan Yunis, Central, Gaza, and North Gaza.
Gaza Governorate is considered the administrative center of the Strip, and includes many residential neighborhoods and vital facilities.
The expansion of the Israeli Holocaust to the Gaza Governorate came one day after Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz threatened last Wednesday that the Hamas movement would receive strong strikes that Gaza had not witnessed for a long time if it did not allow the return of its detainees and stop firing rockets at Israel.
Katz added that the Israeli army will intensify its activities in Gaza until the kidnappers (Israeli prisoners) are released and Hamas is eliminated.
This comes despite Hamas repeatedly affirming over the past months its readiness to conclude a prisoner exchange and ceasefire agreement, and even announced its approval last May of a proposal presented by US President Joe Biden.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backed down from the proposal by putting forward new conditions, most notably the continuation of the genocidal war and not withdrawing the army from Gaza, while Hamas adheres to a complete cessation of the war and a complete withdrawal of the Israeli army.
Generals plan
The Israeli army claims that its escalatory operations in the North Gaza Governorate since October 5, 2024 and in the Gaza Governorate since January 2, aim to prevent the Hamas movement from regaining its power in the region.
But the Palestinians deny the claims of the Israeli army, warning that the holocaust of genocide and ethnic cleansing that Israel is waging in the two governorates comes with the aim of occupying them, turning them into a buffer zone and displacing their residents under the weight of bloody bombardment and a tight siege that deprives them of food, water and medicine, as part of the generals’ plan.
The generals’ plan – according to the Israeli “Ynet” website, which revealed it last September – aims to transform the area north of the Netzarim Corridor (Gaza and the North governorates) into a closed military zone.
According to Basal Anatolia’s figures, of the total population of North Gaza Governorate of 200,000, about 180,000 have already been forcibly displaced, leaving only 20,000 remaining.
It seems that it is now the turn of the Gaza Governorate to be affected by ethnic cleansing and the forced displacement of its residents by the Israeli army.
This will be a combined forced displacement, because more than 30% of the current population of Gaza Governorate are originally displaced from North Gaza Governorate, and who live in inhumane conditions, as the displaced families reside in tents made of nylon and cloth and lack the basic necessities of life in the midst of the cold. It is harsh, which increases their suffering and threatens the health of children and the elderly.
The displaced are spread out in stadiums, public squares, cultural centers, schools and public streets.
With the start of military operations in the Gaza Governorate, residents fear that they will be forcibly forced to move to the Al-Mawasi area, which Israel is calling for to go to, despite its suffering from a severe scarcity of basic necessities of life.
The Al-Mawasi area extends from the west of the city of Rafah to the west of the cities of Deir al-Balah (center) and west of the city of Khan Yunis (south), and people are displaced to it via the sea and Salah al-Din roads, amid deteriorating humanitarian conditions that exacerbate the suffering of the people who face harsh conditions and daily difficulties to obtain the necessary needs.
This also does not protect them from Israeli annihilation, as Israel launches attacks from time to time on the tents of the displaced in the Al-Mawasi area, resulting in large numbers of casualties, claiming to eliminate Hamas militants.
The day before yesterday, Friday, Amos Harel, a military analyst in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, said that what the army is doing in the northern part of the Gaza Strip is linked to an extremist ideology whose goal is to restore settlement and prevent the return of Palestinians.
Harel added that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s mouthpieces began to hint publicly that the only available option would be to occupy the Gaza Governorate.
“The occupation has gone crazy”
For his part, Director General of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Munir Al-Bursh, commented on the current holocaust launched by Israel in the North Gaza Governorate, telling Anadolu Agency that the Israeli occupation has gone mad, as it has been targeting every place in the governorate continuously since the morning and over the past days, in the context of expanding genocide. .
Al-Barash added that there are large numbers of injured and martyrs arriving at Al-Baptist Hospital and Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza Governorate, at a time when health teams are working with very limited capabilities.
He said that we were unable to absorb this large number of infections due to the collapse of the health system, which was already suffering from a severe lack of resources due to the genocide.
Al-Barsh pointed out that the occupation is targeting multiple places with intensity, which increases the burden on medical personnel and the ambulance system, which suffers from severe weakness.
With American support, Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023, leaving more than 154,000 Palestinians dead and wounded – most of them children and women – and more than 11,000 missing, amid massive destruction and famine that killed dozens of children and the elderly, in one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world. .
Israel continues its massacres, ignoring two arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court on November 21 against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Galant, for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Palestinians.