The Israeli army launched one of the most brutal and destructive campaigns of the war in northern Gaza. There, the residents of Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun live under a relentless siege, stripping them of food, water and any illusion of safety, in an unfathomable nightmare under air strikes and continuous bombardment to the point that their bodies cannot Stop shaking all the time.
With this introduction, “Website 972” described the Israeli military operation that, since its beginning in the early hours of the morning of October 6, has killed at least 640 Palestinians, and many residents of the besieged areas described horrific scenes of limbs scattered in the streets. Burning shelters, and hundreds of people trapped inside hospitals, amid the inability of medical teams to recover bodies due to the continuous bombing.
The website said – in a joint report written by Muhammad Mahawish, Ola Al-Assi and Ibrahim Muhammad – that the Israeli army published video clips showing soldiers gathering Palestinians who were taking shelter in displacement camps, and forcing them to head south towards Gaza City.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) estimated that 20,000 people were forcibly displaced from Jabalia on October 18 alone, and photos published by Israeli soldiers on social media also indicate that the army set fire to shelters to prevent Palestinians from returning. .
Video clips today – according to the site – showed dozens of Palestinian men in Jabalia walking under the threat of the Israeli army, blindfolded and handcuffed, and they were likely transferred to detention centers inside Israel where former detainees and whistleblowers reported widespread violations and torture.
All that remained was the will to breathe
The attack on northern Gaza has severely limited the work of hospitals in the besieged areas, and Dr. Muhammad Salha, director of Al Awda Hospital in Jabalia, told the site that the situation in the facility is “catastrophic,” as about 180 medical staff, patients, and displaced families were trapped inside the hospital, while bombing Israeli army surrounding area.
Salha said, “We are just waiting for death or a miracle to come. We have nothing left to treat the wounded and sick. Even basic necessities such as water and medicines are scarce, and the hospital’s generator is running on the last drops of fuel. If the generator stops, the lives of those who depend on ventilators will also stop.” “.
Dr. Marwan Al-Sultan, director of the Indonesian Hospital in nearby Beit Lahia, also described a similar scene. He said, “Israeli tanks surround the hospital from all directions, and many vehicles are stationed at its gates.” Israeli forces had bombed the upper floors of the hospital and set fire to A nearby school, resulting in a fire that reached the hospital’s generators and caused a complete power outage, thus rendering the hospital largely inoperable.
The website described the condition of the patients and medical staff remaining in the hospital without supplies and without electricity, and the Sultan said that “all that remains is the will to breathe.” He also told the story of Nabil Al-Khatib (57 years old) and his family who fled amid the bombing of an UNRWA school in which they were taking shelter in Beit Lahia.
Bilal Salem, a photojournalist documenting the rapidly deteriorating situation in northern Gaza, told the site that every minute feels like the last for him. “You hear the sound of a drone or the whistle of a missile, and then everything turns to dust,” he says. “We move through the rubble like ghosts, trying to capture what we see.” “It remains of people’s lives, but the truth is that there is not much left.”
Bilal Salem: This is not a war, it is a genocide. It’s as if death were waiting around every corner; I see bodies crushed under the rubble, children with missing limbs, and people bleeding in the street, because there is no one left to help them; It’s like living in hell
Salem also spoke about the personal toll of his work, saying, “It’s hard to keep going when you witness this kind of devastation. I’ve covered Gaza all my life, but this isn’t a war, it’s a genocide. It’s like death is waiting around every corner; I see bodies crushed under the rubble.” Children with missing limbs, people bleeding in the street because there is no one left to help them; it is like living in hell.”
Despite the daily risks that threaten his life, Salem continues to do his work, saying: “Journalists are targets. We are considered enemies, because we show the world the reality of what is happening.” And just today the Israeli army claimed that 6 Tel Aviv Tribune journalists in northern Gaza are agents of the Islamic Resistance Movement. (Hamas) and Islamic Jihad.
No one did anything to save them
Nurse Nevin Al-Dawasa, who was trapped for 16 days in Al-Fawqa School in Jabalia, told the site: “We had nothing. No food and no water. The Israeli army bombed the water well and the children were filling jars.”
Al-Dawasa described the Israeli army’s bombing of the school in which she was besieged, saying: “It was hell; they gave us an hour to evacuate, but they bombed us before the time was up. They did not care. I saw the bodies myself, I remember seeing about 30 wounded and 10 dead. We called ambulances, but they did not You can reach.”
Pedal: It was hell; They gave us an hour to evacuate, but they bombed us before the time was up. And they didn’t care. I saw the bodies myself. I remember seeing about 30 wounded and 10 dead. We called ambulances, but they could not arrive
After the bombing, Al-Dawasa says, the Israeli army used drones and tanks to force the survivors to flee under threat of death. “They told us that there was a safe passage, but when we tried to leave, they shouted at us from their tanks: Come back or we will shoot you. They treated us like animals or worse than that.”
On October 17, Palestinian poet Musab Abu Toha – who now lives in exile – took to social media to draw the world’s attention to what is happening to those besieged in northern Gaza, and wrote: “My aunt’s house and her husband’s family are now surrounded by tanks and soldiers.”
The next day, he said, “I write with a heavy heart that my cousin Sama (7 years old) was killed in the airstrike on their house along with 18 members of her family, which is my extended family.” He added, “I posted about this yesterday before the house was bombed. I told everyone that the tanks and soldiers were They surrounded the area but no one listened to me and no one did anything to save them.”