Gaza, day 389: “the entire population of northern Gaza risks dying”

Israel continues its genocidal war in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon. Update on the situation this week in Gaza, where the Israeli army continues to bomb, starve and prevent relief from Palestinians remaining in the north of the besieged enclave.

KEY FIGURES:
At least 43,020 Palestinians were murdered by Israel and at least 100,544 injured in the band of Gaza (including 59% women, children and the elderly) since October 7, 2023

More than 760 Palestinians were killed by Israel in West Bank occupied, including in East Jerusalem. Among them, at least 146 children since October 7, 2023
Israel killed at least 2,574 Lebanese and made more than 12,001 injured since October 7, 2023

At least 189 people have been killed in the last 72 hours, mainly in northern Gaza, which has been under siege for 4 weeks now. This Sunday, October 27, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was “shocked by the atrocious number of deaths, injuries and destruction in the north” of the Gaza Strip. The same day, new strikes were launched in the area, notably in Jabalia. “The plight of Palestinian civilians trapped in the north of the Gaza Strip is unbearable,” the UN chief denounced in a statement, describing “civilians under the rubble , sick and injured people deprived of life-saving health care, and families lacking food and shelter.”

Israeli shelling was reported Monday in Beit Lahiya, destroying an entire residential block and killing at least 35 people. Israel also bombed a school housing civilians in the Fakhura neighborhood of Jabalia, and killed at least 20 Palestinians sheltering there.

Multiple reports indicate that many parts of the north are now uninhabitable due to incessant bombing over the past year, as well as recent repeated ground invasions. Many Palestinians are estimated to remain stranded or lying under rubble, particularly in Beit Lahiya, following incessant Israeli bombardments which caused massive destruction last week. Palestinian Civil Defense teams have been banned by the Israeli army from operating in northern Gaza, so residents have to dig through the rubble themselves in search of loved ones and possible victims. ·survivors.

The last operating hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip officially ceased functioning on Saturday October 26 following a raid by Israeli forces. They began by taking over the hospital, ordering patients and medical staff to leave the wings and go down into the courtyard. Israeli soldiers then separated the men from the women and arrested dozens of Palestinians, including the entire hospital staff except for a nurse and the hospital director, Dr. Husam. Abu Safiyeh.

Since the siege began, Israeli forces have opened fire on the hospital buildings, smashing windows and shelling the upper floors. Israeli forces besiege al-Awda and Indonesian hospitals in northern Gaza. Medical staff continue to warn, in vain, that care is becoming increasingly impossible due to the lack of fuel to power generators and serious shortages of medicines and medical equipment.

Nearly 100,000 Palestinians are still trapped in northern Gaza, cut off from all humanitarian aid, deprived of food and medical equipment. The United Nations’ (UN) chief humanitarian aid official warned on Saturday that, in the face of the rapidly deteriorating situation and the ferocious offensive led by the Israeli army, “the entire population of northern Gaza risks dying.” “Hospitals were hit and healthcare workers were arrested. Shelters were emptied and set on fire,” said Joyce Msuya, Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. She expressed deep concern for the civilian population, reporting that “families have been separated and men and boys are being taken away by truckloads.”

“What is happening in northern Gaza is extermination,” said Hamida Maqat, a Palestinian who fled the north to seek refuge in Gaza City after her home in Jabalia was bombed by Israel on October 20. . Her husband, son, brother and nephew were killed. “The bombings don’t stop for a second. Everything on the ground is bombed. My brother was cleaning the water well in his house when the planes bombed it. He was killed along with his wife, children and grandchildren. More than 16 people were inside the house and no one was able to reach them. »

New night of massacre

Israeli forces killed nearly 100 Palestinians, including 25 children, during an air raid on the night of October 28 to 29, 2024 on houses in northern Gaza where between 300 and 400 displaced people were sleeping. At least 93 deaths have been confirmed, including 25 children, according to the Gaza-based government media office. 150 people were injured and forty others were missing.

Images broadcast on Al Jazeera showed bodies covered with blankets at the site of the attack. We see a woman lamenting next to the victims, including several of her children and grandchildren. “Who am I going to cry to? » she asks. “My sons? My daughters? My grandchildren? My brothers and sisters? They are all gone. There is no one left for me. »

Local media report that due to destruction and shortages of medical equipment, as well as mass arrests of healthcare workers, the injured will not be able to be properly treated. “Most of the injured are at risk of death due to lack of resources,” said Dr. Hussam Abu Safiyeh, the last doctor at Al-Awda Hospital. “The world must act and not just watch the genocide in Gaza. »

4 journalists killed

On Sunday October 27, an Israeli strike targeted a school housing refugees and killed at least 9 people, 4 of whom were journalists: Saed Radwan, of the local channel Al-Aqsa TV, Hamza Abu Salmiya, of the press agency Sanad, and Haneen Baroud, who works for the Al-Quds Foundation and Nadia Imad Sleem, who worked for several local media. The WAFA news agency reported that the shelter, the Asmaa school, had been bombed by Israeli forces twice this month, with the latest attack, on October 19, causing dozens of casualties.

Contacted by the , PJS spokesperson Shuruq As’ad tells us that Nadia Imad Sleem, a Palestinian journalist, worked in one of the 73 press organizations completely destroyed by targeted fire by the Israeli army in Gaza. since October 7, 2024. His brothers were murdered at the start of Israel’s genocidal offensive. Journalists are systematically targeted in Gaza, and their families too, as indicated in the PJS press kit “silencing voices” published last week: they are victims of legal, military and police harassment, arrests, torture and systematic assassinations because of their profession.

The Palestinian Journalists’ Union (PJS) condemned the attack, calling it a deliberate attack against journalists carrying out their duties and saying it would maintain its efforts to “pursue those responsible for these brutal crimes against journalists” and ” take all available legal measures to hold accountable war criminals who deliberately target the Voice of Truth. »