As part of the ongoing war of extermination in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinians are commemorating the first anniversary of the horrific massacre committed by the Israeli army against an entire residential neighborhood in the Jabalia refugee camp, in what is known as the first Jabalia massacre.
On October 31, 2023, the people of Block 6 in the middle of the Jabalia camp in the northern Gaza Strip were exposed to a horrific massacre, as Israeli aircraft dropped 7 tons of explosive bombs, causing the annihilation of an entire residential neighborhood inhabited by thousands of residents and displaced Palestinians.
The massacre left more than 400 martyrs and hundreds wounded, in addition to dozens of missing persons whose bodies are still under the rubble, or have evaporated due to the intense bombing, according to official statements issued at the time by the Ministries of Health and Interior in Gaza.
Many families were removed from the civil registry, and after the massacre, their relatives found no evidence of them. Dozens of corpses belonging to the families: Abu Nasr, Abu Al-Qumsan, Hijazi, Masoud, Al-Bahnasawy, and Okasha, their relatives could find nothing to console themselves with.
The first anniversary of that massacre comes, while on October 5, the Israeli army began unprecedented bombing operations on the camp, the town of Jabalia, and large areas in the northern Gaza Strip, before invading it the next day under the pretext of preventing the Hamas movement from regaining its power in the region.
While the Palestinians say that Israel is working to occupy northern Gaza and turn it into a buffer zone and displace citizens, under a strict siege that prevents the entry of food, water, and medicine, and intense bombing that killed more than a thousand Palestinians in less than a month.
An unforgettable shock
The girl, Israa Hijazi, who was pulled out injured from under the rubble, says that she remembers the day of the most cruel tragedy in her life, when she lost 11 members of her family after their house and the neighboring houses collapsed on top of them.
Hegazy explained to the Anatolia correspondent that that day left her with a great shock from which she has not yet recovered, and it does not seem that she will recover soon, as the disaster is great.
The young woman in her twenties adds: In a few moments, I lost my mother, all of my sisters, most of my family, and our warm house that sheltered us.
She continues, explaining: At the time of the massacre, I was with my mother in the kitchen. Our house was full of displaced relatives, and its building was old and worn out. It was one story and its roof was made of tin and tiles.
She added that their house turned into a cemetery when Israeli bombs fell on our neighborhood, and the neighboring houses collapsed on our heads, and we were all buried under the rubble.
The afflicted girl confirms that she lived through terrifying moments as if they were imaginary. The scene turned into complete darkness even though it was daylight, and clouds of smoke covered the area.
She continued: As soon as the clouds cleared, the features of the picture began to unfold. I could barely catch my breath, and I was unable to call anyone out of shock. Only a few moments passed until people from the neighboring neighborhoods arrived to discover what had happened to us.
Regarding her rescue, Israa says: A few minutes passed that seemed like long hours, until people were able to pull me out from under the rubble, and I saw some of my family’s bodies among the rubble, and I remained silent until I was transferred to the Indonesian hospital.
The young Palestinian woman wonders: What is left for me? The wounds on my body will heal with time, but the wounds in my heart will not be erased for many years.
This afflicted girl hoped to be a media and community activist and help lift her family out of extreme poverty, but a year of the Israeli war of extermination was enough to crush her dreams and turn her life upside down, according to what she said.
Regarding her family members, Israa says that my family was torn apart. I lost my mother and sisters, and the occupation arrested my father and older brother in the first invasion of Jabalia nearly a year ago. And here I am displaced again, accompanied by my relatives and my younger brother, as the occupation has invaded our camp again and is working to empty it and displace its entire population.
As if they were the horrors of the resurrection
Palestinian Rami Al-Talmes lost a number of his family members – including his son, brother, and nephew – and remained next to their bodies for several days, without being able to retrieve them, while he and the rest of the family members were injured.
He told Anatolia that the scene of the Jabalia massacre will remain a nightmare that will not be erased from my memory, as if I witnessed part of the horrors of the Day of Resurrection.
In a tone of pain and deep sadness, Rami recounts the details of that day, saying: We were sitting in our house when Israeli bombs fell on us, taking the lives of a number of my family members, including my eldest son, my brother, and his son.
Rami – who was able to emerge from under the rubble with bruises and bloody wounds on his head – explained that he remained near the burial place of his son and brother, perhaps he would be able to extract them.
He pointed out that after long hours of manual digging accompanied by local volunteers, he was able to find limbs from the bodies of missing persons, but he did not succeed in recovering them.
He says: Due to the scarcity of vehicles, we were unable to retrieve them, and I spent several days sitting next to them without being able to do anything, until we were finally able to do so with great difficulty.
The forty-year-old man reveals the extent of the oppression and heartbreak that grips the father when he loses his eldest son, a young boy no more than 16 years old.
He added: I named him Ramez after my brother who was martyred by an Israeli tank shell in a previous invasion of the Jabalia camp in 2004, and I watched him grow before my eyes with great pleasure and pride.
Regarding Ramez’s qualities, the bereaved father adds: Little Ramez devoted himself to sports, fitness, and bodybuilding, and I saw in him his martyr uncle with all his masculine qualities and love of life.
In another aspect of the picture, the young man Mahmoud Abu Nasr was wishing to find the remains of 20 members of his family whose bodies had evaporated.
Mahmoud told Anadolu that he was sitting in his home in the Beit Lahia project, when he heard that the massacre had occurred in “Sanayda Neighborhood,” where his grandfather’s one-story house was located.
He explains that he and his brother rushed to the area to see what the eye could not bear or the mind could comprehend, after the neighborhood was turned upside down, and he did not find any of its features, and he was lost from where the house was.
Speaking about the extent of the massive destruction, he says: As I was moving among the rubble, I looked carefully to see where my grandfather’s house was, but I could not distinguish. I found the house as if it had completely evaporated, and in its place a large hole with a diameter exceeding 10 meters had formed.
He continues: I searched but did not find my family members, so I decided to go to the Indonesian hospital, and there I saw the other part of the tragedy: dozens of bodies lying at the mortuary and in front of the hospital gates.
Trying to zoom in on the picture, Mahmoud says: The smell of death was spreading everywhere, and I saw in people’s eyes confusion, grief, and shock, as if an earthquake had struck the entire area.
Mahmoud refers to long hours of searching until evening came to no avail. However, he resumed the search in the morning, and continued in this state for days.
He concluded by saying: Heartbreak and pain still squeeze my heart. I only wanted to find the bodies of my grandfather, my uncle, my aunts, and their children to say goodbye to them and bury them, but the Israeli bombs of hatred prevented me from doing that.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel, with absolute American support, has been waging a genocidal war on Gaza, resulting in more than 144,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing persons, amid massive destruction and famine that killed dozens of children and the elderly, in One of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.
