GAZA, (PIC)
Shells are falling on us like rain, and we can’t even open the windows due to the random gunfire from Israeli tanks and the drone strikes. We can’t leave our homes to fulfill our needs; a curfew has been imposed on us due to Israeli fire.
These are the words of citizen Iyad Muqdad, who spoke over the phone to a correspondent from the Palestinian Information Center, describing the dire situation facing the residents of Jabalia and northern Gaza due to the escalating genocide in the area, which appears to be an unannounced execution of the so-called Israeli “Generals’ Plan”.
Muqdad said that the situation in northern Gaza is oppressive and harsh, with people being exterminated without any help or support. “There is no water, medicine, or food; corpses lie in the streets, and those who venture out are killed or shot at. Here, we are being exterminated in every sense of the word, however; we will remain in our north.”
Fierce assault and new evacuations
The northern Gaza governorate is undergoing a new fierce Israeli assault, entering its eighth consecutive day following a widespread attack by the occupation army on areas like Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia, and Jabalia. A strict blockade has been imposed, preventing supplies of water, food, and medicine, resulting in dozens of martyrs and hundreds of wounded, while crippling the healthcare system.
New evacuation orders are issued in other areas to the north, including the neighborhoods of Jabalia, Al-Nazla, and Abu Iskander, up to the borders of Sheikh Radwan, in an attempt to displace those who remain. However, the result has been a steadfast resistance in the face of destruction.
This is the third incursion carried out by the Israeli occupation army in the northern region since the beginning of the genocide on October 7, 2023. The area of northern Gaza, including the city of Gaza, covers about 110 square kilometers, constituting roughly a third of the total area of the Gaza Strip.
Destruction and demolition
This morning, the occupation army carried out massive demolition and bombing operations on civilians’ homes in several areas of northern Gaza, including Al-Touam and Al-Saftawi. They launched airstrikes on Jabalia, the Al-Zeitoun neighborhood, and conducted intense artillery shelling on Qalibo, Beit Lahia, and the Jabalia refugee camp, in an attempt to displace the residents of the north and break their steadfastness in their areas.
In this regard, the Civil Defense confirmed in a statement that the occupation army has committed massacres against civilians, resulting in dozens of martyrs and hundreds of injured, with bodies still lying in the streets, making it difficult to access them due to the targeting of ambulance and civil defense crews amid the ongoing heavy bombardment.
The statement clarified that the Israeli army is threatening the more than 200,000 citizens in the neighborhoods and areas of the northern governorate, demanding that they evacuate their homes.
Fundamental mistake
For his part, UN Secretary-General António Guterres described the recent developments in northern Gaza as “particularly horrifying,” explaining that there is a “clear escalation of Israeli military operations.” He pointed out that approximately 400,000 people are once again forced to move south to an overcrowded and polluted area lacking basic necessities for survival.
Guterres added that families in the Jabalia refugee camp in the north have been ordered to leave for the fourth time, emphasizing that “there is a fundamental mistake in the way the war is being managed.”
On Friday, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society announced that all its ambulances in northern Gaza have ceased operations due to a lack of fuel necessary for their operation, following the ongoing Israeli ground attack for the seventh consecutive day, coupled with a strict blockade imposed on the governorate.
The society’s spokesperson, Raed Al-Nimr, stated that six ambulances have completely gone out of service due to the fuel shortage and the Israeli occupation’s prevention of any fuel supplies into northern Gaza under the imposed blockade.
This stoppage has led to paralysis in the ability to provide emergency services to the injured and sick in the area. The ongoing Israeli attack and blockade have hindered the evacuation of 80 patients from hospitals in the north to hospitals in Gaza City and the central and southern areas of the Strip, according to the Red Crescent.
From the North to Paradise
Despite all this, the residents of northern Gaza show unparalleled resilience, raising the slogan “From the North to Paradise.” They refuse to leave their steadfast north, preferring to die there rather than abandon it, affirming that death is a thousand times better than displacement.
Citizen Muath Abu Faraj, a resident of the Tarens area in Jabalia camp, tells our correspondent, “They dream that we will leave our homes; we will not abandon our north or our camp, except as martyrs.”
He continues in his conversation with our correspondent over the phone, as gunfire can be heard intermittently, along with airstrikes and artillery shelling, saying that the occupation forces are imposing a suffocating siege on the camp and do not allow any movement. Anyone who walks around or even pokes their head out of the window is exposed to direct gunfire aimed at killing.
He confirms that there are dozens of bodies in the streets, and injured people that the civil defense cannot evacuate. The occupation army continues to kill and exterminate people, noting the depletion of basic necessities such as food, water, and clothing.
Journalist Youssef Fares said that the reality is that the occupation army is carrying out the largest forced displacement operation in northern Gaza, but its methods differ from what was mentioned in the Generals’ Plan. “We are facing death not from hunger but from bombardment.”
He continues in a post on Facebook that the enemy has plenty of room to do as it pleases, as long as its crimes do not even elicit condemnation and denunciation. The people of the north are undergoing a great test and a significant trial; evacuating homes and areas means leaving them forever. The mere idea of displacement to the south makes everyone weigh the choice between dying in their home or being displaced, and usually, death is favored.
He ended his post saying: “Oh Lord, we are in distress.”
The World Food Program confirmed in a statement that food supply lines to northern Gaza have been completely cut off since October 1, reinforcing the hypotheses that the occupation is starting to starve people and kill them in preparation for evacuating the north as part of what is known as the Generals’ Plan.
The Israeli cleansing plan, prepared by retired General Giora Eiland, aims to evacuate northern Gaza of its population of 400,000 to make way for establishing a “closed military zone.”
Popular resilience
The British website Middle East highlighted the rising state of Palestinian popular resilience in the face of the Israeli ethnic cleansing plan aimed at forcibly displacing citizens from northern Gaza.
The site said that the Israeli occupation army is implementing a plan aimed at actual ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population in northern Gaza after a siege that could last for months, but it is met with Palestinian popular resilience and a firm rejection of displacement.
The General’s Plan, launched in an Israeli television campaign last September, called for the ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza. Eiland said last month, “The right thing for us to do is to inform nearly 300,000 residents who remain in northern Gaza… that we are ordering you to leave, and within a week, all of northern Gaza will become military territory.”
