What is “Israel” Doing in the Devastated Northern Gaza?

The ongoing Israeli military operation in North Gaza Strip, which commenced on October 5, 2024, is now entering its third month, leaving behind horrifying scenes of destruction that have obliterated the essentials of life there.

During this operation targeting the “Jabalia refugee camp, and the towns of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun,” Israel has leveled extensive residential areas to the ground, thereby destroying the infrastructure and all life-sustaining elements of the citizens.

Piles of rubble from homes still bury the bodies of their residents, where rescue and civil defense teams have failed to retrieve them after being forced to cease operations due to Israeli targeting of their teams and vehicles.

At a time when the army also deliberately targets hospitals, medical centers, and humanitarian service headquarters with bombings, shootings, and explosions, rendering them completely out of service.

The Israeli army continues its intensive operations in the northern governorate, having deployed military reinforcements in recent days with the aim of expanding their scope and completing their plan of ethnic cleansing by displacing the remaining Palestinians there.

Since the operation began, the army has forced tens of thousands of North Gaza’s residents to flee under the barrage of gunfire and killing, with 70,000 out of the original 450,000 inhabitants refusing the idea of displacement.

“City Annihilation”

The Israeli army has intensified its “city annihilation” policy in the northern governorate during its ongoing operation, implementing comprehensive erasure and complete destruction of homes, residential neighborhoods, and infrastructure, according to a report by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor last December.

According to the report, the army used four methods in city annihilation: demolition via robots and explosive barrels, aerial bombing with destructive bombs and missiles, setting explosive devices and remote detonation, and bulldozing with Israeli military and civilian bulldozers.

Anadolu Agency’s reporter in Gaza reported that the sounds of explosions from the demolitions in the northern neighborhoods could be heard in the far south of the Strip.

Videos posted by Israeli military personnel and some citizens who did not leave the north showed the immense destruction caused by these operations.

Mohamed Labad, who endured in the “Beit Lahia Project” until December 15, 2024, before being forced to flee to Gaza City through the Israeli checkpoint under severe military pressure in the area, said: “I lived in North Gaza Strip during the military operation for about 70 days, not a single night was free from demolition and explosions.”

He added: “These operations have changed the features of the area, making it uninhabitable forever.”

He reported that the army used “robots (booby-trapped) in demolition operations where they plant them during the day and detonate them at night, usually placed in densely populated residential areas to cause maximum destruction.”

Corpses in the Streets

Throughout the months of the operation, the army committed massacres against civilians by targeting inhabited homes and civilian gatherings in the streets, resulting in thousands of deaths and injuries.

Dozens of bodies remained under the rubble of destroyed homes, while some lay in the streets without army permission for retrieval, leading stray dogs and cats to feed on them.

To this day, the Ministry of Health in Gaza has been unable to count the number of Palestinians martyred and wounded in the ongoing military operation in the northern governorate due to the breakdown of the medical system.

Ihab Ghubn, still trapped in the town of “Beit Lahia,” refuses forced displacement despite the intensity of Israeli targeting.

He says: “What is happening in North Gaza chills the bones, and the bodies of the martyrs are exposed to unspeakable horrors, with dogs eating human flesh before our eyes, and we cannot stop them.”

He adds: “During the day, someone is martyred, and their body remains in the street because it is impossible to retrieve it, and by the next morning, we find that stray dogs have gnawed most of the body.”

Ghubn continues: “Sometimes we manage to reach the targeting sites after days, only to find that stray dogs have left nothing but the bones of the bodies.”

He points out that the daily scenes from the Gaza Strip governorate are “very gruesome and unbearable for any human being.”

Starvation and Thirst

In addition to city annihilation and deliberate killing, “Israel” has used the weapons of starvation and thirst against the residents of the northern governorate, imposing a strict blockade from day one of the operation, preventing the entry of any food, relief supplies, or water.

The features of this humanitarian crisis began to emerge just days after the blockade, causing the deaths of dozens by drone fire and military vehicles while they searched for food and water.

The Palestinian al-Masri family lost their son “Ahmed” (34 years old) in the town of “Beit Lahia” at the end of November, after he went out to search for water.

Ruhi al-Masri says: “We certainly feared death by bombing, but what we feared more was dying from hunger and thirst, which drove us to risk searching for food and water.”

He adds: “We lost my only brother while he was looking for potable water, leaving behind a wife and three children with no provider today.”

He describes the ordeal they endured in the northern governorate before their forced displacement to Gaza City, saying: “It was hell and death and oppression that cannot be spoken of lightly or in a few words.”

Forced Displacement Corridor

Since October 5, 2024, the Israeli army established a checkpoint east of the town of “Jabalia” and used it as the main route for the displaced to pass to Gaza City.

The army exploited this checkpoint “to torment the citizens, including women and children, and arrested hundreds of men whose fates remain unknown to this day,” according to eyewitnesses.

Citizens forced to flee from the northern governorate had to walk more than 10 kilometers in front of Israeli vehicles and in severe cold to reach a safer place.

Palestinian Reham Abu Jalal, among those who passed through the checkpoint during her displacement to Gaza, lived a harsh experience with her family of nine members.

She says: “I don’t think a worse experience could occur in my entire life, as the sights of soldiers tormenting women and children, fully stripping men, and the sounds of their torture in nearby places at the checkpoint, break the heart.”

She continues: “There is nothing left in the northern Strip. Everything there has been destroyed and turned into rubble. The army committed great atrocities against the steadfast citizens who refused to leave.”

Since October 5, last year, the Israeli occupation army has been sweeping through the northern Gaza Strip, under the pretext of “preventing Hamas from regaining its strength in the area.”

While the Palestinians say that “Israel” is working to occupy the area and turn it into a buffer zone, displacing them under bloody bombardment and a tight siege that deprives them of food, water, and medicine.

This occurs while “Tel Aviv” continues its genocidal war on Gaza, which has resulted in more than 154,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, mostly children and women, with over 11,000 missing, amid massive destruction and famine that has killed dozens of children and the elderly, in one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.

“Tel Aviv” continues its massacres, ignoring two arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court on November 21, 2024, against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, on charges of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza.