Bombings, killer drones, and starvation: eyewitnesses describe Israel’s extermination campaign in northern Gaza
Testimonies from the brutal siege on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza describe massive air and ground assaults, including killer quadcopter drones, that are destroying infrastructure and causing catastrophic humanitarian conditions.
The Israeli offensive against northern Gaza continues for the twelfth day in a row, imposing a brutal siege on an area that houses at least 200,000 Palestinians. The offensive, which began in early October, is targeting the town and refugee camp of Jabalia, in addition to Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, and has featured a massive air and ground assault to destroy the infrastructure that remains in those areas.
The Israeli army ordered residents of northern Gaza to leave, indicating only one route through Salah al-Din Street that extends from Gaza’s north to the south. Most crucially, this prevents residents from fleeing to Gaza City and staying north of Wadi Gaza. Jabalia in particular has received the brunt of the Israeli attack. Eyewitness testimony shared with Mondoweiss indicates that the Israeli army’s strangulation of Jabalia has served as a siege within the larger siege of northern Gaza.
During the recent onslaught, the camp has been pounded with heavy artillery and airstrikes while Palestinian residents have also been targeted with quadcopter drones. On Thursday, October 17, an Israeli airstrike targeted the Abu Hussein boys school in Western Jabalia, where thousands of Palestinians took shelter. The strike, conducted with two air missiles, killed at least 28 Palestinians, including children, and wounded more than 50.
On October 14, Israeli drones opened fire on Palestinians who had gathered at a UN aid distribution site to receive food, killing 10, while Israeli artillery shelled two schools sheltering civilians alongside several houses in Jabalia, killing 20.
The offensive on Jabalia is the third Israeli invasion of the refugee camp over the past year, indicating the strategic importance of the city and its refugee camp as a stronghold of Palestinian resistance where Israeli forces have fought some of their hardest battles throughout the current war. But the current invasion is different, as Israeli troops have now sealed off Jabalia from the rest of northern Gaza entirely — in an apparent attempt at implementing the “Generals’ Plan,” an alleged Israeli plot to empty northern Gaza of its inhabitants through deliberate starvation and massive bombardment.
‘Firebelts,’ attack drones, and hunger
Najah, a Palestinian in her 40s and resident of Jabalia who asked to keep her last name anonymous, continues to live in Jabalia with her sister and two daughters. The rest of her family members fled to the south of the strip in the early weeks of the war and aren’t allowed back north, alongside a million other Palestinians who were displaced from the north to the south.
“In Jabalia, we have been living indoors for the past two weeks,” Najah told Mondoweiss. “If we step out of our houses, we risk being shot at by the occupation’s quadcopters.”
“Quadcopters and snipers open fire at anyone who crosses the Abu Sharkh roundabout in the center of Jabalia, and people risk their lives to run across it and join other family members,” she explained. “A co-worker of my brother was shot while crossing the roundabout and was hit in the leg and waist, and his 12-year-old daughter was lightly injured by a bullet in the neck, but she bled a lot.”
The siege on Jabalia and northern Gaza has brought back fears of renewed starvation that overtook the north last June, during which at least 34 Palestinians, mostly children, died from malnutrition.
“Until now, we are surviving on canned food and flour, which we had before the current siege started, but there is no meat and no vegetables,” Najah said.
“The aid that remains and that is distributed to people is not enough. When a family of 20 people gets a chicken, they prefer to sell it to have cash for other more important goods, which makes the price of meat and vegetables skyrocket,” she explained. “One chicken, if found, can cost up to 350 shekels [$93], and one tomato can cost up to 40 shekels [$10].”
‘Starvation is knocking on our doors again’
In the midst of the siege, Palestinians have been subjected to catastrophic humanitarian conditions. “Fear, anxiety, but above all, hunger,” Muhammad al-Sayed, a resident of Jabalia, told Mondoweiss, describing the ongoing siege.
“A day under siege is looking constantly for food,” al-Sayed said. “Bombings begin with very heavy fire belts. Their sound is horrifying. Everything shakes and children put their fingers in their ears and scream.”
Fire belts are a series of consecutive airstrikes on a limited area’s perimeter, aiming at isolating it from its surroundings through multiple massive explosions. Israel has used the “fire belt” strategy intensively throughout its assault on Gaza, especially during the early months of the war when the Israeli army leveled entire residential blocks in Gaza City to “clear” areas ahead of a ground invasion.
Muhammad al-Sayed continued to describe the ongoing Israeli campaign in Jabalia. “Then come the smoke bombs and bombings on populated areas,” he said. “We could hear the sound of quadcopters shooting everywhere.”
“My family and I, including my wife and children, live in a zinko house in Jabalia,” al-Sayed said, describing a type of makeshift home that uses corrugated steel sheets as a roof. “Our everyday life under siege is made of fear and horror, especially for the children.”
Amidst the bombing, Palestinian rescue crews have faced difficulties in safely reaching areas that have been bombed to evacuate the wounded. Muhammad Sharif, another Jabalia resident, told Mondoweiss that “ambulance crews were targeted by strikes at the Yemen Gate entrance to Jablia after the strike on the school on Thursday, and they couldn’t reach many of the wounded inside.”
“Airstrikes are focusing on the western part of the camp, where the occupation either bombs or detonates buildings,” Sharif said. “Jabalia is experiencing total destruction. The sounds of airstrikes or drone fire never stops. It’s everywhere.”
“You expect every hour to be your last, and added to that, starvation is knocking on our doors again,” he added.
The Israeli offensive on Jabalia has entered its thirteenth day amid expectations that Israel seeks to entirely depopulate northern Gaza in accordance with the so-called “Generals’ plan.” The Israeli assault has killed at least 380 Palestinians as of the time of writing, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.