Refusing to submit to Israeli evacuation orders, Palestinian Ibrahim Odeh (42 years old) insists on remaining in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip despite the ongoing ground military operation since Sunday morning.
Odeh, who is currently residing in a tent he set up in one of the shelter centers inside the camp, says that he will not leave the camp except “for heaven,” even if survival costs him his life, despite the loss of his home and two of his children during the ongoing genocidal war on the Strip.
Odeh stays inside the displacement tent, accompanied by his wife and four children, along with hundreds of residents of Jabalia camp who refuse to leave it, despite the dangers to their lives in light of the Israeli siege of the camp.
Odeh told Anadolu Agency, “The occupation is trying to push us to emigrate and move to areas in the south of the Gaza Strip after a year of our steadfastness in the north and the loss of our homes and businesses.”
He considered evacuating the camp something “far-fetched” amid the camp’s residents’ insistence on staying there, repeating that they “will not leave their places of residence in the north except towards the sky,” according to him.
On Sunday, the Israeli army announced the start of a ground military operation in Jabalia, under the pretext of preventing the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) from regaining its power in the region, hours after the start of a fierce attack on the eastern and western regions of the northern Gaza Strip, including Jabalia, the most violent since last May.
This is the third ground operation carried out by the Israeli army in the Jabalia camp in the northern Gaza Strip since the beginning of the genocidal war on October 7, 2023.
During previous operations, Israeli forces killed and wounded hundreds of Palestinians in aerial and artillery bombardment and shooting inside the camp, in addition to destroying and burning hundreds of homes.
Evacuation plan
On Monday, the Israeli army began displacing Palestinians from 3 towns in the northern Gaza Strip, in a move that appears to be an undeclared implementation of the “generals’ plan” that aims to empty the northern Gaza Strip and impose an absolute siege on it in preparation for settlement there.
In conjunction with the first anniversary of the start of the genocidal war committed by Israel since October 7, 2023, army spokesman Avichai Adraee, in a post on the X platform, issued a warning to the residents of Beit Hanoun, Jabalia, and Beit Lahia and published a map of the areas required to be evacuated.
Adraee said, “You must evacuate these areas immediately towards the humanitarian zone created in Al-Mawasi” in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip.
The map published by Adraee on Sunday is similar to the map of the “Generals’ Plan” drawn up by former commanders in the Israeli army affiliated with the right, led by former head of the National Security Council Giora Eiland.
He revealed the “generals’ plan” at the beginning of last September, which stipulates the displacement of all Palestinians from the northern Gaza Strip within a week-long period before imposing a siege on the region and placing Palestinian fighters there between the option of death or surrender.
The Israeli government did not announce the adoption of the plan, but the (official) Broadcasting Corporation reported in September that the Mini-Ministerial Council for Political and Security Affairs (the Cabinet) was examining this plan.
On Sunday, Army Radio reported that “there is currently no relationship between the ground military operation that began in Jabalia and the implementation of the Heroes Plan or the Jazira (Generals) Plan.”
She continued, “This is a purely military operation, and it is completely separate from the political process. Until this stage, the political level has not decided on any implementation of a political plan in the northern Gaza Strip.”
No place is safe
Commenting on the evacuation orders, Odeh says that the Israeli army is trying to “delude the people of the north that there are safe places in the south, but its continued crimes there and its deliberate killing of the displaced exposes this lie.”
He continues, saying, “On the same day that the invasion of Jabalia camp began, and we demanded an evacuation towards the south, a massacre was committed in the humanitarian zone in the city of Deir al-Balah, and a mosque containing safe displaced people was bombed.”
At dawn on Sunday, 26 Palestinians were martyred and dozens injured in two Israeli massacres that targeted the Ibn Rushd School in the town of Al-Zawaida and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Mosque in Deir Al-Balah, which shelter displaced people in the central Gaza Strip, according to data from the Ministry of Health in the Strip.
The young Palestinian man, Murid Ahmed (26 years old), from Jabalia camp, shares Odeh’s opinion.
He told Anatolia, “We refused evacuation since the first days of the war, before we lost any of our property or our loved ones, so how can we accept it now? Especially with the continued Israeli crimes against our displaced people in the south.”
Ahmed believes that the Israeli army relies on the principle of military pressure on the people of Jabalia in general to push them to move towards the south.
He confirms that this policy has proven to be a failure, and the evidence is the people’s insistence on not leaving their homes for other areas, despite the Israeli army vehicles clearly approaching them.
Thousands of people in the northern Gaza Strip have adhered to the option of remaining in their homes and not moving to the southern regions, since October 14, 2023, when the Israeli army issued their first evacuation order.
Of the 1.2 million people who used to live in the Gaza and northern governorates, there are currently about 700,000 people who have refused to move to the south of the Strip, according to official Palestinian data.
Siege of the North
Since the beginning of the recent military operation, the Israeli army has imposed a stifling siege on the northern Gaza Strip governorate, especially the Jabalia area, targeting anyone who tries to leave it, which led to the injury of a number of citizens.
The Israeli army is currently incursions into various areas of Jabalia camp, starting from the eastern fence, and in the vicinity of the Abu Sharkh roundabout (west of the camp), in addition to its incursion into the vicinity of the “Al-Tawam” roundabout neighborhood in the northwest of the Gaza Strip, according to eyewitnesses.
With the evacuation orders, some citizens tried to leave Jabalia, but they were subjected to Israeli attacks.
The Palestinian Asaad Al-Nadi, a resident of the town of Jabalia, told Anadolu Agency that he “tried to flee the camp with his family to escape the oppression of the occupation, towards a safe area west of Gaza City, but they were targeted, which resulted in the injury of his son Muhammad (16 years old).
With great difficulty, he was able to transport his son, who was shot in the foot by an Israeli march, and carried him on his shoulder until the first ambulance arrived, and he was transferred to Baptist Hospital to receive treatment.
Despite the direct targeting and continued fear as a result of these escalating crimes, the club decided not to flee to the areas south of the Gaza Strip, after “steadfasting in Jabalia for an entire year.”
He pointed out that it is possible for him to be displaced and move within the Gaza and North governorates, but he will never move to the south, as the displaced people who fled towards the southern regions at the beginning of the genocide war have not been able to return to Gaza and the north until today.
This military operation in the north coincides with the passage of a full year since Israel, with American support, launched a genocidal war in Gaza, resulting in more than 139,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, and more than 10,000 missing, amid massive destruction and famine that killed dozens of children and the elderly.
Tel Aviv continues its massacres, ignoring the UN Security Council resolution to end them immediately, and the orders of the International Court of Justice to take measures to prevent acts of “genocide” and improve the miserable humanitarian situation in Gaza.