On October 21, 2024, individuals injured during an Israeli operation in the Jabalia refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip were transported to Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City via ambulance. — AFP

Israeli forces reportedly demolished homes and surrounded schools and shelters for displaced individuals on Monday as they intensified their operations in Jabalia, located in the northern Gaza Strip, according to residents and medics. They also apprehended men and instructed women to vacate the camp. Medics at Indonesian Hospital informed Reuters that Israeli troops raided a school, detained the men, and subsequently set the facility on fire. The blaze spread to the hospital's generators, causing a power failure.

Health officials stated they defied orders from the Israeli army, which initiated a new incursion into northern Palestinian territory over two weeks ago, to evacuate the three hospitals in the area or leave patients unattended. Troops remained stationed outside the hospital but did not enter, they added. Medics at a second hospital, Kamal Adwan, reported intense Israeli fire near the hospital during the night.

"The army is setting the schools next to the hospital ablaze, and no one can enter or exit the hospital," said a nurse at the Indonesian Hospital. Palestinian health officials reported that 18 people had been killed in Jabalia and eight elsewhere in Gaza due to Israeli strikes.

The Israeli military confirmed that ground operations were ongoing across the Gaza Strip. In a statement, they mentioned that over the past day, troops had dismantled militant infrastructure and tunnel shafts and eliminated fighters in the Jabaliya area. However, they did not provide any immediate comments regarding the situation at the hospitals and camps.

Israel has escalated its operations in both Gaza and Lebanon following the assassination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, which sparked hopes for ceasefire negotiations to end over a year of conflict. Israel has pledged to eradicate Hamas militants who previously controlled Gaza, but in doing so, has devastated much of the territory and caused the deaths of tens of thousands of people. More than 1.9 million individuals have been rendered homeless amid a humanitarian crisis.

Hadeel Obeid, a supervisor nurse at the Indonesian hospital, where 32 patients are currently being treated, stated that they were running low on medical supplies. "Sterile gauze is nearly depleted, and there are no medications available to administer," she told Reuters via a chat app. Obeid added that the water supply had been cut off, and there was no food for the fourth consecutive day. She urgently appealed to international organizations to intervene and save the wounded.

The United Nations reported that it had been unable to access the three hospitals in northern Gaza and demanded access to facilitate aid delivery to northern Gaza areas. The UN Human Rights Office expressed growing concern that the manner in which the Israeli military is conducting hostilities in North Gaza, along with unlawful interference with humanitarian assistance and orders leading to forced displacement, may result in the destruction of the Palestinian population in Gaza's northernmost governorate through death and displacement.

Israel asserts that it is providing substantial humanitarian supplies to Gaza through land deliveries and airdrops. It also claims to have facilitated the evacuation of patients from the Kamal Adwan Hospital. However, Palestinians report that no aid has reached northern Gaza areas where the operation is active.

Residents and medics reported that Israeli forces had tightened their siege on Jabalia, the largest of the enclave's eight historic refugee camps, by deploying tanks to nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya and issuing evacuation orders to residents. "We are facing death from bombs, thirst, and hunger," said Raed, a resident of Jabalia camp. "Jabalia is being obliterated, and there is no witness to the crime; the world is turning a blind eye."

Israeli officials stated that evacuation orders were intended to separate Hamas fighters from civilians and denied any systematic plan to clear civilians out of Jabalia or other northern areas. They claimed that forces operating in northern Gaza had eliminated scores of Hamas gunmen and dismantled infrastructure. Hamas accused Israel of committing acts of "genocide and ethnic cleansing" against the people of northern Gaza to force them to leave.

The Hamas armed wing reported that fighters had attacked forces with anti-tank rockets and mortar fire, detonating pre-planted bombs against troops inside tanks and stationed in houses. Elsewhere in the enclave, Israeli strikes reportedly killed at least five people in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip and four in two separate strikes in Gaza City, according to medics.

Source link:   https://www.khaleejtimes.com