Israel’s operation to dismantle an alleged Hamas regrouping in the north of the Gaza Strip has created a humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory.
The overt presence of Israel Defense Forces soldiers has lasted almost a month. And it mainly affects the Jabália region, which hosts a large refugee camp and which is under order for the immediate withdrawal of the Israeli military.
Since the beginning of the month, more than 360 Palestinians have died in the region, according to Palestinian authorities.
Furthermore, humanitarian aid organizations operating in the area accuse Israel of isolating the region for the entry of food — which would have caused a spike in hunger among the more than 400,000 residents of the north of the Palestinian enclave.
According to the Israeli NGO Gisha, the military adopted a “leave or starve” policy, forcing Palestinians to take refuge in the south. The UN released a similar criticism, pointing out that the Israeli army was forcing residents of northern Gaza to choose between hunger and displacement.
“Civilians have no choice but to starve or leave,” said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Palestine refugee agency (UNRWA), in a statement on Monday (14). “In Gaza, many red lines were crossed.”
The Israeli agency that manages the flow of aid to Gaza denies this. And it claims that 30 trucks entered the north on Monday, insisting that Israel “is not preventing the entry of humanitarian aid”.
Dogs eat bodies left on the streets
Bodies strewn across dusty streets, entire roads destroyed by Israeli attacks, people dying of hunger. This is the scenario reported in Jabália by the head of emergency services in the area.
“You can see the signs of hunger in people in northern Gaza,” Fares Afana, head of emergency services in northern Gaza, told CNN by phone “Israeli forces are destroying everything that represents life or signs of life.”
Afana told CNN that he and his colleagues received the bodies of Palestinians killed in northern Gaza, with some showing signs that animals were feeding, stifling efforts to identify the dead.
“Stray dogs that are hungry are eating these bodies… This makes it difficult to identify the bodies,” he said.
He shared a photo with CNN showing the remains of a child whose body he said had been eaten by stray dogs.
Afana said there are “thousands of children” and pregnant women trapped in the besieged area, where the Israeli army has carried out air and ground attacks on three neighborhoods over the past 12 days.
At least 50,000 people have been displaced from the Jabalya area, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Sunday.
Afana said that on Monday Israeli forces shot at hungry residents who were seeking food at an aid center run by UNRWA. “The situation is getting worse,” he said.
UNRWA said an artillery attack on its food distribution center in Jabalya on Monday reportedly killed at least 10 people and injured 40 others.
THE CNN asked the IDF for comment.
“For paramedics, it is also very dangerous to reach this area… as a result of the roads being blown up and direct fire from the Israeli military on our vehicles,” Afana said.
He said ambulances were hit by Israeli artillery shrapnel near Yemen al-Sa’eed Hospital in Jabalya, sharing a video of the aftermath that showed an ambulance with crushed tires and bullet holes.
“What is happening in northern Gaza is a true genocide,” he added. “We can’t do our jobs normally.”
THE CNN asked the IDF about Afana’s claims that emergency vehicles were targeted by the Israeli army.
US demands Israel improve humanitarian situation in Gaza
The Biden administration sent a letter to the Israeli government demanding that Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition take concrete actions to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza within the next 30 days or risk violating US laws governing foreign military assistance, suggesting that the US military aid may be at risk.
Sunday’s letter, written jointly by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, is addressed to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer. The document marks a significant new step by the US in trying to force Israel to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
They write that the US has deep concerns about the situation and calls for “urgent and sustained action from your government this month to reverse this trajectory.”
Since this spring, the amount of aid delivered to Gaza has fallen by more than 50% and the amount delivered in September “was the lowest of any month during the past year,” they added.
Despite the stark warning, however, the US continued to provide military assistance to Israel, including an advanced air defense system and American troops who began arriving in the country on Monday (14).
The list of US demands is extensive. Israel must allow at least 350 trucks a day to enter Gaza via all four main crossings, the letter says, as well as opening a fifth crossing. Israel is also expected next month to implement humanitarian pauses in Gaza as necessary to allow for humanitarian activities, including vaccinations and aid distribution for at least the next four months.
The US is also demanding that Israel allow people in the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone inside Gaza to move inland before winter and increase security for humanitarian convoys and movements.
Israel should also take steps to ensure that Jordanian Armed Forces corridors are functioning at “full and continuous capacity.”
This content was originally published in Israel intensifies attacks in northern Gaza; Hunger threatens 400,000 Palestinians on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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