Israeli army ethnically cleanses half of Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza: Schools burned, men kidnapped
Israel is in its third week of ethnically cleansing northern Gaza, particularly around the Jabalia refugee camp. And according to reports, about half of all the Palestinians there have been removed as Israeli soldiers burn down schools and kidnap people.
At the same time that Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are launching airstrikes on the region, ground forces are going door to door looking for starving, unarmed Palestinians to forcibly remove from their homes and send elsewhere.
Heavy airstrikes and artillery shelling are destroying entire homes and buildings where the Palestinians are sheltering. Increasingly more displaced families have nowhere to go while IDF soldiers knock down schools, homes and other facilities to prevent the Palestinians from returning.
After burning down or leveling the structures, the IDF is forcing whoever is still alive to head south. Many of the refugees who obey end up dead anyway as Israel then proceeds to shoot and kill them for no apparent reason while they are fleeing.
Some of the refugees are disobeying the orders and heading west of Jabalia instead of south to a place called Beit Lahia. Others are trying to flee to Gaza City. No matter where they try to go, the Palestinians are being killed left and right.
"This is a genocide," said a resident of north Gaza named Hasan. "They're starving people, blockading people. There are still tens of thousands of people here in Jabalia."
(Related: Be sure to check out our earlier report to see how the world is reacting to Israel's attack on the Jabalia refugee camp: many are using words like "inhumane" and "war crimes" to describe the IDF's actions there.)
Will Israel succeed in taking over Gaza with the General's Plan?
The offensive on Jabalia began on October 5. The IDF says it needed to happen to root out Hamas fighters who had supposedly regrouped there. Since that date, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed while tens of thousands of others have been displaced.
Nearly half of the more than one million people who live in northern Gaza have been displaced from their homes. The rest may end up being displaced as well if Israel's annexation plans are a success.
All of this seems to stem from a controversial proposal called the "General's Plan" that would divide Gaza into two states, one of which would be emptied out of people so Israel can establish a "closed military zone" there. Anyone who chooses to stay instead of flee will automatically be considered a Hamas operative.
"Those who leave will receive food and water," said retired Israeli military general and former head of the National Security Council Giora Eiland, the guy behind the General's Plan.
According to the United Nations (UN) agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), there are about 400,000 Palestinians who still live in the north of Gaza, including in Gaza City.
"What the Israeli forces do is that they plant the barrel in an area, and then they withdraw and later explode it," Hasan further told the media about what he is seeing Israel do by denying food and water while indiscriminately killing the refugees.
"They [the explosions] sound like an earthquake. All of this is part of [Israel's] plan to evict and displace residents from the area, to clear the area."
Another man named Yahya who is trapped inside Jabalia says most of the people there are exhausted and that the conditions are unbearable.
"The entire area around me is destroyed," Yahya said. "Homes, cars and even people. Most of them are wounded. Each one has an injury in his arm, leg, head or eye."
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