Jabalia Death Toll Tragically Climbs While Thousands More Trapped
A Palestinian news agency reported that on Friday night Israeli fighter jets had bombed a multistory apartment block in Jabalia, striking four inhabited homes and killing 22 people.
This week, more than 150 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes in an operation which is focusing on the Jabalia refugee camp, the Financial Times reported. These deaths include women and children. Many are injured as well as missing, while 300,000 more are trapped in the Palestinian city.
As the death toll continues to climb, the Israeli military issued evacuation orders on Saturday for northern Gaza, which included orders for residents near the occupied territory. The Financial Times reported that the IDF left just one street for civilians to exit from. The military group also announced that they had “eliminated” at least 50 Hamas fighters during their attacks.
Israel's offensive first began eight days ago, and marks the Israeli government’s growing assault on Palestinian territories since conflict first broke out following Hamas’ attack on October 7. The campaign is an attempt to depopulate the northern portion of Gaza and transform the area into a militarily controlled “warzone”, an Egyptian newspaper reported.
Now, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who are trapped in northern Gaza face the risk of death either from Israeli attacks or famine.
“It’s more than scary — the situation is critical,” an eyewitness, who managed to escape from Jabalia before the offensive began, told the Financial Times. “It seems that the Jabalia camp will be deleted from Gaza’s geography.”
Al Jazeera reported that the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north was “perilously close” to running out of fuel, and staff said they were ordered to leave by IDF soldiers.
Meanwhile the World Food Programme (WFP) warned that the increasing violence in northern Gaza was having a “disastrous impact on food security for thousands of Palestinian families”. The UN agency added that no food aid has entered since October 1, as the main crossings into the north have been blocked.
Hamas lambasted Israel on Saturday and said its “massacres are a continuation of the ongoing criminal genocide against our people, shielded by American support.” They added that Israel’s new offensive action is an attempt to “punish the population for their resilience and rejection of displacement”.
Across mainstream media, the assault on Jabalia has been overshadowed by Israel’s tracks in Lebanon, and their ongoing conflict with Iran.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health said on Saturday that over 42,000 people have been killed and nearly 100,000 people were wounded in Israeli attacks since the conflict first broke out a little over a year ago.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20241013/jabalia-death-toll-tragically-climbs-while-thousands-more-trapped-1120527670.html
