Israel has cut off northern Gaza for more than a week now, preventing any aid from arriving, while it mounts major ground and air attacks and has killed dozens of people in recent days.
Here’s everything you need to know about what’s happening there right now:
What did Israel do?
The Israeli army launched an attack in Jabalia and has besieged northern Gaza since last week, trapping tens of thousands of people without access to food and water.
The Israeli army separates northern Gaza from Gaza City using military vehicles, drones and sand barriers.
Why is he doing this?
Israel says its actions in Jabalia are aimed at “preventing Hamas from regrouping.”
It also says it aims to entirely eradicate armed Palestinian resistance in the north.
What is happening to the residents of northern Gaza?
Reports from residents of northern Gaza indicate that this is one of the most difficult times of a horrible year.
“Most of the victims are children and women, and they arrive at the hospital either in pieces or drenched in blood,” Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hani Mahmoud reported from central Gaza.
According to a correspondent for Tel Aviv Tribune and Doctors Without Borders, Israeli snipers killed people who tried to flee, despite evacuation orders.
Some residents decided to stay, distrusting the Israeli-designated “humanitarian security zones,” which Israel attacked anyway.
Israeli attacks killed at least 200 people last week in the north, according to Mounir al-Bursh, head of the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza.
Tens of thousands of families remain under siege inside the Jabalia camp while the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) says some 400,000 people are trapped in the north.
Medical teams and ambulances were also reportedly affected.
What does Israel want? Occupy Gaza?
Gideon Levy, a columnist for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, told Tel Aviv Tribune that the Israeli government’s goal appears to be to ethnically cleanse northern Gaza by expelling all Palestinians.
“Israel itself has declared that, fundamentally, Hamas as a military force is totally defeated. So why does this continue? This continues because Israel would like to see the northern part of Gaza empty of all its Palestinian inhabitants,” he added.
Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but has kept it under land, air and sea blockade since 2007.
During the past year of war against the besieged enclave, Israel has repeatedly declared that it does not want to reoccupy Gaza.
Some Israeli officials, however, have pushed for the construction of settlements in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suggested a setup similar to that in the occupied West Bank: Israeli military control over Gaza while the Palestinian Authority or a local non-Hamas entity handles civilian affairs.
Israel’s true objective remains unclear, but the timing of its northern siege is interesting, according to Levy.
“(Under the cover of the war in Lebanon… while the whole world is looking at Lebanon and (Israel’s possible strike) on Iran… Israel is taking advantage and doing these things in Gaza without having any military objectives. “, he said.
Would Israel’s occupation of Gaza be legal?
Due to the current siege of Gaza, the UN, Amnesty International and other humanitarian organizations still refer to Gaza as “occupied territory.”
An Israeli attempt to militarily or physically occupy Gaza would violate international law.
The violation would be further aggravated if it took the same direction as in the occupied West Bank.
There, illegal Israeli settlements are springing up everywhere, Palestinians are deprived of access to their land, the Israeli army raids and kills with impunity – as do Israeli settlers – among other violations.
More than 750,000 Israeli settlers live on Palestinian lands conquered by force.
International law states that an occupying power must introduce as few changes as possible and not alter the status quo of the territory. Nor should an occupying power displace its own population into the territory it occupies.
Additionally, the occupier is required to comply with regulations such as protecting the property of occupied people and allowing the flow of humanitarian aid, something Israel does not currently do in northern Gaza.
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