Battles in the heart of Jabalia: total carnage
While the attention of the press and media is catalyzed by the discovery of the bodies of the three kidnapped and killed Israelis On October 7, things are moving at an incredible speed in the northern Gaza Strip. What Israel had declared to be an area “reclaimed” by Hamas has once again become the main focus of its military campaign, despite the fact that the area is densely populated.
According to what Al-Jazeera reported a few minutes ago, battles are raging in the heart of the Jabalia refugee camp, particularly in the vicinity of Kamal Adwan hospital, where the Israeli army has intensified military bombardment on the main central neighborhoods, killing at least 28 Palestinians, including 10 children and 10 women, in the last two hours.
The entire Jabalia refugee camp is suffering an unprecedented rate of destruction. According to what was reported to Al-Jazeera by witnesses and sources in the field, it appears that the Israeli army is demolishing entire residential neighborhoods without any regard for the civilians inside who remain buried under the rubble of the buildings. Rescuers are making desperate efforts to recover the victims. The objective appears to be to destroy the entire camp in order to ensure that no form of military threat from Hamas reorganizes from that area. Al-Jazeera correspondent, journalist Hani Mahmoud, reports that the attack, along with others that occurred today in the Jabalia area, amounts to “one of the fastest massacres of civilians in all of Gaza since the first weeks of the war.”
Even in Rafah, people flee towards nowhere, “into a desert of devastation and sand”. There are around 1 and a half million inhabitants crowded into that city, and more than 600,000 of them have already abandoned it in panic, certain that “Biden’s warnings will not stop a massive ground attack like the one that occurred in Gaza City and Khan Yunis”.
Since yesterday, the first shipments of humanitarian aid which are delivered to the UN have begun to disembark on the temporary pier set up by the United States on the north coast of Gaza, which cost more than 320 million dollars., who is responsible for coordinating its distribution. Further aid from the United States and other countries continues to arrive in Cyprus, where it will be loaded onto ships for delivery via the dock.
The pier is a temporary solution to ensure humanitarian assistance to Gaza and satisfy urgent needs but, as the UN spokesperson states, humanitarian aid “cannot and must not depend on a floating dock, far from the places where the emergency is most urgent”. The UN also warns that “neglect threatens the Gaza Strip”, and whether aid arrives by sea or land does not change because “without fuel it will not reach the people who need it”.
And yesterday afternoon the International Court of Justice concluded a two-day hearing into the emergency measures requested by South Africa in Israel’s war on Gaza. It is the fourth time that South Africa has appealed to the court this year, in the context of the genocide case initiated against Israel in December 2023. In this fourth proceeding, South Africa asked the court to order an end to the Israeli attack in Rafah, which he defines as “the last refuge” in Gaza; appealed for several other “interim measures,” including that Israel allow unhindered access to Gaza for humanitarian aid, journalists and investigators. In response, Israel said yesterday that it has the right to continue its offensive on Rafah to defend itself from Hamas and accused South Africa of “ridiculing the atrocious accusation of genocide” and of “dragging Israel into court endlessly”. The International Court of Justice is expected to rule on the emergency measures requested by South Africa next week.
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