War-weary Palestinians are fleeing northern Gaza amid a continuing and deadly siege by the Israeli army.
Online videos on Monday showed hundreds of displaced people heading towards a checkpoint manned by soldiers in Jabalia, the center of the massive Israeli military operation launched against the town in early October.
Trapped for days as Israeli forces launched their full-scale assault, residents of the area were rounded up and searched by soldiers before being ordered to leave.
As they passed an Israeli tank on a rubble-strewn dirt road, they were searched as they passed through a checkpoint in single file.
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, estimates that around 400,000 people remain in northern Gaza, including Gaza City, which is home to the Jabalia refugee camp.
UNRWA spokesperson Louise Wateridge said “tens of thousands of people have been displaced from northern areas”, including Jabalia to Gaza City, with other parts of the north unaffected. by the worst violence.
Frequent Israeli shelling and damaged roads have made it almost impossible for paramedics and ambulances to reach the injured and dead.
Israel has killed at least 450 people in the region since it besieged the northern part of the enclave on October 6, according to doctors interviewed by Tel Aviv Tribune.
“We have wounded and martyrs every moment,” said civil defense rescuer Motaz Ayoub, but “all those who are injured continue to bleed until they die.”
With limited access, already serious shortages have worsened. The Palestinian Health Ministry said all but one of northern Gaza’s hospitals are out of service.
The only medical facility that is still only partially functioning has “neither medicines nor medical supplies,” said Hossam Abu Safia, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital.
“People are being killed in the streets and we cannot help them,” he said. “Bodies are lying in the streets. »
