By Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO (Reuters) – Palestinians displaced from northern Gaza said Israeli forces had inflicted widespread destruction on their home districts in their latest six-week-old offensive and a rights group raised concerns Israel might put some areas permanently off-limits.
Jabalia, one of the largest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps, as well as the towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun and nearby villages, were among the first targets of Israel’s ground offensive in October 2023 after Hamas militants attacked Israel.
Tanks have gone in several more times in what Israel says are necessary operations against militants there who still pose a threat. On Thursday, it said its troops had killed dozens of “terrorists” and found a large quantity of weapons.
Former construction contractor Abu Raed, who was displaced from Jabalia, said Israeli forces were blowing buildings up remotely after booby-trapping them or sending in robots.
“The destruction before Oct 5, 2024 was big, but what happened in the past month can’t be described in words. Most of the camp was destroyed this time,” he told Reuters via chat app.
“I have friends and relatives in Beit Hanoun, there are hardly any building standing there, Beit Lahiya also,” the 75-year-old said. “At least half or 60 percent of buildings and roads in Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya are in ruins now.”
Video footage of people fleeing the areas shows many destroyed buildings but a lack of access for journalists makes it hard to verify the full extent of the damage.
CALLS FROM UNDER THE RUBBLE
Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital near Beit Lahiya, said there were no ambulances working in the north.
“Heartbreakingly, I have received multiple distress calls from people trapped under the rubble of their homes, but I could do nothing for them,” he told Reuters. “The next day, their voices were gone … with their homes becoming their graves. This scene is repeated daily.”
The Human Rights Watch report was the latest to warn about the dire humanitarian situation. “Forced displacement has been widespread, and the evidence shows it has been systematic and part of a state policy. Such acts also constitute crimes against humanity,” it said.
It said the displacement “is likely planned to be permanent in the buffer zones and security corridors”, an action it said would amount to “ethnic cleansing”.
The Israeli military has denied seeking to create permanent buffer zones and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Monday that Palestinians displaced from their homes in northern Gaza would be allowed to return at the end of the war.
Abdel-Hadi, a resident from Beit Lahiya now displaced in Gaza City, was sceptical.
“They have torched schools and other shelters where people took refuge before ordering families to head south toward Gaza City. What do you call that if not ethnic cleansing?” he said.
“Many families who at the beginning were against leaving were forced to do so after they ran out of water and food,” he told Reuters. “Large areas have become empty, under the control of the occupation. Those areas have become off-limits.”
The three northern areas were home to around 400,000 people before the war began last year; at least half remained before the new offensive, a figure the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service estimated was now down to 80,000 people who it said were stuck without rescue teams or a fully-functional hospital.
Hospital director Abu Safiya said his few remaining staff had begun recording cases of malnutrition and dehydration among both children and adults and urged the international community to help.
Israel says it orders evacuations to protect civilians from the fighting and denies accusations of starving them. It said recently it had met most of the requests by its main ally, the United States, to improve aid flow and reported on Thursday that UAE aid delivered by sea had crossed into northern Gaza. Palestinians say its statements are misleading.
The Palestinian civil emergency service estimates that the bodies of 10,000 people may be trapped under the rubble, which would take the reported death toll to more than 50,000.
The Gaza health ministry said on Thursday 43,736 people had been confirmed dead since Oct 7, 2023. Hamas militants killed around 1,200 Israelis that day, and are still holding dozens of some 250 hostages they took back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi; additional reporting by James Mackenzie and Emily Rose in Jerusalem and Tala Ramadan in Dubai; editing by Philippa Fletcher)