The Israeli army forcibly expelled Palestinians in northern Gaza from their shelters, as relayed by eyewitness accounts, news reports, and video footage released by Israeli sources.
On Wednesday, Israel’s Kan TV channel aired video footage of Israeli military trucks transferring dozens of blindfolded Palestinian detainees. Kan claimed that the Palestinians were arrested “for interrogation.”
The Israeli army also released aerial video footage on Wednesday showing hundreds of Palestinians walking amid the rubble, surrounded by Israeli tanks as they all head in the same direction after being gathered in a destroyed square. The Israeli army reportedly said that it had “evacuated” 20,000 Palestinians from Jabalia.
On Tuesday, video footage circulated online showing Israeli drones airing a recorded voice ordering Palestinians to leave the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia. The drones reportedly also dropped leaflets ordering Palestinians to leave.
Despite Israeli claims to have displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians from northern Gaza, local sources dispute these claims. Muhammad Sharif, a resident of Jabalia, told Mondoweiss that “people know that they will not be safer if they leave to the south, because the occupation has already bombed people while leaving on the routes that the occupation army designated as safe, and because they have been bombing people in the so-called safe-zones.”
Sharif added that “only a small number of those who were forced to leave displacement shelters left northern Gaza. The majority went elsewhere in the same area.”
Destroying homes to render them unlivable
Testimonies by survivors indicate that Israeli troops set fire to displacement shelters after forcing Palestinians to leave, destroying the belongings they left behind. Rabiha Maqid, a survivor who left the Hamad school in eastern Beit Lahia, where she and hundreds of Palestinians took shelter from the bombings, told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that Israeli soldiers ordered displaced Palestinians to leave the school and gave them little time to gather their belongings. Maqid said that she and displaced Palestinians watched soldiers setting fire to the school while they were leaving and that some soldiers took pictures of themselves while doing it.
Local reports also indicate that Israeli forces have demolished buildings and even entire residential blocks by detonation in Jabalia, effectively rendering most of the area uninhabitable.
In January, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported that Israeli soldiers had been setting Palestinian buildings on fire with the approval of their commanders, rendering them unusable. In April, Palestinians who survived Israel’s destruction of the al-Shifa Hospital said that Israeli soldiers had set fire to entire floors in the medical complex. Images from al-Shifa showed that almost the entire medical complex had been burned. The Deputy Director of al-Shifa told the media that “al-Shifa is finished, forever” following the Israeli withdrawal.
The ongoing Israeli operations in northern Gaza are accompanied by massive bombing campaigns on Jabalia and constant quadcopter drone fire, preventing rescue teams from accessing areas that have been bombed. The Palestinian Civil Defense said on Wednesday that three of its rescuers were killed by Israeli fire while trying to evacuate Palestinians and that all of its operations have been halted in all of northern Gaza, leaving the population without any humanitarian services.
Israel’s siege and offensive on northern Gaza have been ongoing for 20 days, as part of what has been described as the implementation of Israel’s “Generals’ Plan,” which aims to forcibly depopulate northern Gaza through deliberate starvation and extermination. Although the Generals’ Plan doesn’t include plans for settler colonization of the area after its ethnic cleansing, far-right Israeli politicians and settler groups have been advocating for settling Gaza since December of last year.
On Monday, Israelis rallied at Kibbutz Be’eri 3 kilometers away from Gaza’s fence demanding to be allowed to settle in the Strip. The rally was attended by several Israeli ministers, according to Israeli media. Reports indicated that some 700 Israeli families at the event had signed up to move to the prospective Israeli settlements in Gaza.
Northern Gaza was home to some 700,000 Palestinians before October 7, 2023. According to estimates, some 200,000 Palestinians continue to live in the area, which includes Jabalia, Beit Lahia, Twam, Sheikh Zayed, and Beit Hanoun.
Two days ago Btselem posted this ( emphasis mine ):
The world must stop the ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza…The magnitude of the crimes Israel is currently committing in the northern Gaza Strip in its campaign to empty it of however many residents are left is impossible to describe, not just because hundreds of thousands of people enduring starvation, disease without access to medical care and incessant bombardments and gunfire defies comprehension, but because Israel has cut them off from the world….Ever since Israel’s current operation in the northern Gaza Strip began on 5 October, the area has been under a near complete siege, relentlessly pummeled by the military. Other than in the most exceptional cases, Israel does not allow humanitarian aid or emergency crews in, taking advantage of the fact that global attention has been diverted to irreversibly change reality on the ground….Now, when it is clearer than ever that Israel intends to forcibly displace northern Gaza’s residents by committing some of the gravest crimes under the laws of war, the world’s nations must take action.
https://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20241022_the_world_must_stop_the_ethnic_cleansing_of_northern_gaza
Also this interview with B’Tselem spokesperson Sarit Michaeli:
I think B’Tselem decided to make this statement as really an act of desperation. It’s impossible for us to continue to watch, to observe the very little information we are getting from northern Gaza, the very fragmented information, and not conclude that what is going on there is the deliberate pressuring by the Israeli army of the civilian population of the area to move out of this area in order to empty it of Palestinians. This is ethnic cleansing. The definition that we would argue is the Israeli current actions on the ground.
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/24/gaza_sarit_michaeli
We can be sure MSNBC Morning Joe, Mika, Andrea Mitchell, Nicole Wallace, Ari Melber, Rachel Maddow, CNN’s Dana Bash, Jake Tapper etc will not be showing this what it is the 1000th Nakba over the last year. We are used to these media host ignoring the genocide or soft pedaling the issue.
Now, even watching PBS, BBC, DW, dropping the genocide off their maps.
Few people addressing not only how Harris may lose Dearborn Michigan because of the “uncommitted” vote in response to the genocide in Gaza, West Bank. Wayne County also has the largest Lebanese American vote,
“Wayne County has the highest percentage of Lebanese Americans among all counties in the United States, according to 2020 census data. And Michigan has the largest number of Lebanese Americans among all states, more than 82,000 as of 2020.Sep 19, 2024 ”
https://www.michiganpublic.org/wtv/2024-10-24/what-the-vote-gen-z-and-the-uncommitted-movement
The Dem chair in Michigan was just on the MSNBC 12 o clock hour. Jose Diaz Balart in for Andrea Mithcell. Michigan Dem chairperson Lavora Barnes completely ignored the genocide issue in Gaza, Israel’s invasion of Lebanon . Completely ignored it. Was a non issue until Jose asked about it. She brushed it off and said something like “we can deal with this later.” Can you imagine a black woman, a Hispanic woman anyone just brushing off the fact that the Biden/Harris administration has provided the arms for Israel to commit genocide. Weak response by Dem Chair Lavora Barnes. Dem chair of Michigan.
That vote could easily take Harris out of play.
Excellent 6.14 minutes explanation of the need to upend capitalism to liberate the Middle East https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dBy4-6pn1M