October 16, 2024
With the full support of the Biden administration, Israel is waging a merciless war of extermination against the 400,000 Palestinians remaining in the northern Gaza Strip as the government of Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly considering a plan to annex the territory. No food, water, or medicine have entered the north since October 1 as Israeli forces have conducted a campaign of intense airstrikes and ground forces have invaded and encircled much of the area.
Palestinians inspect the targeted area on the tents housing displaced civilians after Israeli attacks in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al Balah, Gaza on October 14, 2024. (Photo: Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images/Drop Site)
As it orders residents to flee the north, Israel has intensified its attacks on Deir Al-Balah, a city in central Gaza that has not suffered the vast scale of destruction unleashed by Israel in other parts of the Strip. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled to the city in recent months. In the early morning hours of Monday, Israel bombed a crowded tent encampment for displaced people on the grounds of Al Aqsa hospital, engulfing civilians in a massive ring of fire. Video from the scene showed patients—some of whom appeared to be in beds attached to IV cords—being burned alive as others in the encampment tried desperately to extinguish the fires with small buckets of water.
“I swear to God I saw people burning in front of me. By god, no one could do anything. The man, the woman and the little girl burning in front of me, I swear to God. In front of me they burned, in front of me. Their souls left in front of me, in front of us, in front of all our eyes,” said Saleh Al-Jafarawi, an independent Palestinian journalist who filmed the massacre. “No one was able to do anything, no one was able to advance and get them. We tried, but we couldn’t, the fire was so strong that no one was able to advance and pull them out of the fire. They were burned alive. Their bodies were charred. This is a crime that we have never seen and no one has seen like it,” he added in a video posted on his Instagram account.
“I swear to God the scenes that will remain in our memories, will remain in our hearts forever. We will never forget the scene that I witnessed today: The scene of the child and he is burning in the heart of the fire and no one was able to help him.”
At least four people died and 70 others, mostly women and children, were wounded with many suffering severe third degree burns. The death toll is expected to rise dramatically, as local medical officials have described many of the injured as being in critical condition. The hospital was already operating well over capacity and many patients are treated on the floors or in hallways. “We’re already dealing with the overflow from mass casualty incidents and the general baseline level of trauma that we get and then you add to that we have patients who get significant, high percentage burns. Unfortunately their fate is sealed, they won’t even make it to the ICU. They will die. Many children, many women with significant burns die. That’s the reality on the ground here,” Dr. Mohammed Tahir, a surgeon from the UK who is volunteering at Al Aqsa Hospital, told Al Jazeera.
“It’s a horror show here. It doesn’t feel real anymore. Honestly, sometimes I feel this is not real life, that this can go on and this degree of suffering is allowed to happen in this world. It’s unimaginable.”
Since January, Israel has attacked the tent encampments in and around the hospital at least seven times.
The Israeli military characterized its incineration of civilians in tents at the hospital as a “precision” strike against “terrorists who were working in a command and control complex that was established in an area previously known as the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.” The IDF, which vowed to continue such attacks, provided no evidence to support its claims about Hamas using the hospital. This pattern of justifying attacks on civilians and protected sites by claiming Hamas uses them as human shields or command centers has been a hallmark of Israel’s genocidal war, a lethal narrative that has been repeatedly bolstered by senior U.S. officials.
A recent report by an independent UN Commission found that “Israeli security forces asserted that over 85 percent of major medical facilities in Gaza were used by Hamas for terror operations, but did not provide evidence to substantiate that claim.” The commission accused Israel of war crimes in its attacks against hospitals, clinics, ambulances and medical workers. “Attacks on health-care facilities are an intrinsic element of the Israeli security forces’ broader assault on Palestinians in Gaza and the physical and demographic infrastructure of Gaza, as well as of efforts to expand the occupation,” the report charged.
“The Commission finds that Israel has implemented a concerted policy to destroy the health-care system of Gaza.”
Gaza: “A never ending hell”
International media coverage of the genocide against the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip has receded in recent weeks as focus has shifted to a potential war between Israel and Iran. The Pentagon announced on Sunday that the U.S. is delivering THAAD missile defense systems to Israel and deploying roughly 100 U.S. troops to operate them in the event of an Iranian counterstrike to an anticipated Israeli attack on Iran. Vice President Kamala Harris recently told 60 Minutes that Iran was the U.S.’s “greatest adversary,” a position that contradicts the conclusions of multiple U.S. intelligence and Pentagon assessments. In the month since Israel began its open war against Lebanon, it simultaneously ratcheted up its mass killing operations throughout Gaza, sending a clear message that Israel’s aim is to obliterate any vestige of life, architecture or culture that existed before the October 7 attacks.
The Biden administration, after a summer of promises that a deal to end the war was in sight, has pivoted away from any talk of a Gaza ceasefire. Both President Joe Biden and Harris have issued repeated statements proclaiming Israel’s right to self defense and have zeroed in on Iran as the center of their attention in the region. “They want to get to November 5 with as little friction as they can,” said Jasmine El-Gamal, a former Pentagon official, in an interview with Drop Site News.
“ So even though we’re literally watching the extermination of people, of children literally before our eyes, whether it’s slowly because of the lack of food, whether it’s because of the complete decimation of the healthcare system, whether it’s because they’re just being bombed to smithereens, is such a loud and clear message that they are not going to touch this between now and the elections.”
In a post on X on Sunday, Harris made no mention of Israel’s brutal military attacks in northern and central Gaza. “The UN reports that no food has entered northern Gaza in nearly 2 weeks. Israel must urgently do more to facilitate the flow of aid to those in need,” Harris wrote.
“Civilians must be protected and must have access to food, water, and medicine. International humanitarian law must be respected.”
El-Gamal, the former country director for Syria and Lebanon at the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy under the Obama administration, said that some senior officials shaping U.S. policy in the region have embraced Israel’s wars as an opportunity to alter the political landscape in Lebanon and the broader Middle East, while others recognize the Gaza war as a political minefield that Harris’s election campaign should now avoid entering. “So you have this political, strategic, diplomatic, military enablement of Israel to basically have carte blanche in Gaza and Lebanon,” she said.
“The continued weapons assistance to Israel is framed as defense of Israel. That’s their story and they’re sticking to it.”
Just hours before Israeli warplanes bombed the tent encampment at Al Aqsa hospital, Israeli tanks shelled a UN-run school that was housing displaced people in Nuseirat refugee camp. At least 22 people were killed in the attack and more than 80 others were wounded. The school was scheduled to operate a Polio vaccination site on Monday. “Gaza is a never ending hell. All of this must not become the new norm. Humanity must prevail,” wrote Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner of UNRWA, in a post on X.
The major Israeli military operation in northern Gaza that began nine days ago to cleanse the area of its residents has been particularly brutal. Israeli forces have surrounded and isolated a number of areas, including Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahia, and Israeli tanks have reached the outskirts of Gaza City. Israel’s operations in northern Gaza have fueled speculation that the IDF is already implementing a plan promoted by a group of retired Israeli military officers led by Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland, known as the “surrender or starve” plan. Palestinians in the north, according to the plan, would be given a week to leave and those who remain would be categorized as combatants by Israeli forces. Many residents of the north have refused to leave, in part because they believe that nowhere in Gaza is safe and all Palestinians are treated, by default, as legitimate targets by Israel.
The Gaza government media office said in a statement that around 300 Palestinians have been killed in the recent Israeli siege of the north and there are reports of dozens of bodies in the streets. Homes, schools, displacement shelters have all been targeted and destroyed. Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif, one of the few journalists who has not left northern Gaza since the launch of the Israeli assault over a year ago, said on Friday:
“Without exaggeration, these are the most difficult days of the Israeli war on Gaza.”
Israel issued three renewed displacement orders earlier this month, calling on all civilians in northern Gaza to flee to the south while preventing them from being able to leave safely. Since then, Israeli tanks and troops have invaded and laid siege to different areas, particularly the Jabaliya refugee camp, where people are trapped and unable to move amid relentless bombardment, shelling and ground attacks. On Monday, Israel bombed a food distribution center in the camp, killing at least 10 people and wounding 30.
“We were staying at the Al-Yemen Al-Saeed Hospital, but they bombed it. About 20 people were killed. I don’t know what to do, at any moment we could die. People are starving. I am afraid to stay, and I am also afraid to leave,” a driver for Médecins Sans Frontières trapped in Jabalia camp, said.
Israeli troops have erected barricades and sand barriers blocking all exits to the city, with Israeli soldiers and quadcopters targeting anyone who moves. “Anyone who approaches these barricades is targeted without warning,” a resident of Jabaliya told Drop Site News.
“An entire family was targeted that was trying to displace and leave the camp, they were targeted in cold blood.”
Israeli forces are reportedly demolishing and blowing up homes left behind by the residents who did manage to flee. Tanks and bulldozers also stormed the Saftawi cemetery north of Gaza City on Sunday and exhumed several bodies, according to Mada Masr.
“Due to the Israeli occupation siege on Jabaliya camp, most injuries caused by the occupation’s bullets and shelling lead to death, as there are no medical resources or capabilities available to effectively treat the wounded,” Al Jazeera correspondent Hossam Shabat said in an online post. Shabat reported that the Red Crescent had stopped working in Jabaliya due to a lack of fuel as Israel issued another expulsion order. “The Israeli occupation army bombed civilians as they were fleeing these areas. The attacks have not stopped,” he said on October 12.
On Sunday, at least five children were killed when an Israeli drone attacked them as they were playing near a cafe in Al-Shati refugee camp, located on the coast, just west of Jabaliya. Commenting on the attack, Bisan Owda, an Emmy award-winning journalist, said through tears on Sunday: “These children were playing football in the street in the Shati refugee camp…They were playing in the middle of the rubble of partially destroyed places because they are children and they don’t know any way to face all of this but playing, and they were killed,” she said.
“They died, just like the thousands of children before. These people did not evacuate the north of Gaza Strip, not only because they stick to their right to stay, but also because people are not safe in the south.”
Israel has continued to target Palestinian journalists in Gaza. Mohamed al-Tanani, a cameraman for Al-Aqsa TV, was killed while reporting in Jabaliya refugee camp and his colleague Tamer Labad was injured. Last week, Al Jazeera cameraman Fadi al-Wahidi was shot in the neck, leaving him paralyzed and Ali Al-Attar was badly injured when shrapnel from an Israeli attack in Deir Al-Balah pierced his head.
Israel last week issued evacuation orders to three hospitals in northern Gaza, Kamal Adwan, Indonesian, and Al-Awda, threatening that they would face “the same fate as al-Shifa hospital, with destruction, killing and arrest.”
Fuel to run electricity generators is running out amid the Israeli blockade, putting patients in ICU units at particular risk. A doctor at the ICU in the Indonesian hospital sent a video on Monday showing patients lying unconscious in hospital beds “This patient is hopeless and is going to die. The situation is very, very, very difficult,” the doctor says. “They hit a school near our division right now, you can hear the explosion,” he said in an accompanying audio note.
At Kamal Adwan hospital, those patients and staff that have tried to leave have been unable to do so. “The hospital has been directly targeted for over five days by drones, smoke bombs, and artillery shells near the hospital, on the hospital’s roof, and through its windows,” Dr. Eid Sabah, the director of nursing at the hospital, told Drop Site News.
“Bombings and killings are happening everywhere. Fear and terror have spread through every street and alley. The hospital is in a terrible state.”
The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, posted a photo on Sunday of the charred remains of its health center in Jabaliya. “Jabalia Camp has been the most affected area, with reports of families trapped in areas of ongoing military operations. Humanitarian access to Jabalia continues to be denied. Health facilities and workers are #NotATarget,” UNRWA wrote.
“In the past two weeks, over 50,000 people have been displaced from the Jabaliya area, which is cut off, while others remain stranded in their homes amid increased bombardment and fighting. A military siege that deprives civilians of essential means of survival is unacceptable,” said Muhannad Hadi, the UNOCHA Humanitarian Coordinator, in a statement on Sunday.
“The latest military operations in northern Gaza have forced the closure of water wells, bakeries, medical points and shelters, as well as the suspension of protection services, malnutrition treatment, and temporary learning spaces. At the same time, hospitals have seen an influx of trauma injuries… Civilians must not be forced to choose between displacement and starvation.”
Israel’s War on the United Nations
Binoy Kampmark
The United Nations is an easy body to hate. At times, it seems to be effusion without substance, body with no backbone. It was conceived in a fit of post-war idealism, when egos were humbled and hatred briefly stemmed. Over the ruins of the Second World War, the builders were favored over the destroyers and mischief makers – at least for a time.
On its establishment, the UN became a hostage to the political intrigues and power blocs that have continued to plague it for its duration. Of particular concern was the body’s pursuit of international law protocols – formulation, drafting and implementation. A central feature of this: resolutions passed by various bodies, the most significant being by the UN Security Council. Such measures are followed by nation states when convenient, ignored when not.
One such nation state in the mischief making class is Israel. Its relationship with the UN has often been tetchy. The Anti-Defamation League, for instance, admits that the body “played a pivotal role in the establishment of the Jewish State by passing UN Resolution 181 in 1947”. The resolution, with its hefty consequences, called for “the partition of British Mandate Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab.” The same organisation, however, goes on to note with satisfaction the remarks in April 2007 by then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon: “Unfortunately, because of the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict, Israel’s been weighed down by criticism and suffered from bias – and sometimes even discrimination.”
For various periods of its history, Israel has felt hard done by in the international forum. The folder of resolutions against it has burgeoned. Notable ones include UNSC Resolution 242 (1967) which asserts, in accordance with the UN Charter principles, that a “just and lasting peace in the Middle East” includes the withdrawal of Israel’s armed forces from territories occupied during the Six Day War and the termination of territorial claims and affirmation of sovereignty of all States in the area. UNSC Resolution 338 (1973), passed in response to the Yom Kippur War between Israel, Egypt and Syria, called on the parties to cease hostilities within 12 hours and implement Resolution 242 “in all its parts”.
UN Resolution 2334, passed in December 2016, particularly hurt, striking at the expansionist, displacing drive of the Jewish state through settlements in occupied territory that amount to de facto colonisation. It particularly condemned “all measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem”. This included, among other matters, the expansion of the settlements, the transfer of Israeli settlers, the confiscation of land and the displacement of Palestinian civilians.
Instead of seeing such a measure as a clear assessment of predation in breach of international law and the principles of the UN Charter, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, called it an unnecessary reward to the Palestinians “to continue down a dangerous path they have chosen” in avoiding direct negotiations with Israel. That Israel cared not a jot on that score hardly mattered.
A number of recent incidents reveals the poor regard the United Nations is held in, notably within Israel’s warring circles. Its agency aiding Palestinians, UNRWA, is threatened by two bills before the Israeli parliament that will significantly hamper its operations by evicting the body from its premise in territories within Israel’s control. The proposed laws will also abolish any associated privileges and immunities. Having failed to convince all major donors to the organisation that it should be defunded for being packed with Hamas apologists and operatives (the evidence has always been paltry on that score), the Israeli government is using a legal sledgehammer fashioned by the Knesset.
The passage of the bills, warns UN Secretary-General António Guterres, “would effectively end coordination to protect UN convoys, offices and shelters serving hundreds of thousands of people.” The provision of shelter, food and healthcare “would grind to a halt” without the agency. Some 600,000 children “would lose the only entity that is able to re-start education, risking the fate of an entire generation.”
With Israel’s broadening campaign against Hezbollah to the north, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is facing continuous harassment by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Established in 1978 by the Security Council to confirm the withdrawal of Israel from Lebanon and aid Lebanese authorities restore peace and security in the area, UNIFIL has been a source of endless irritation to the IDF’s operations.
In an October 13 statement, UNIFIL revealed that two IDF Merkava tanks at 4.30 that morning had gone about the business of destroying the main gate of their post in Ramyah, near the Israeli border. The tanks forcibly entered, after which Israeli personnel demanded that the base turn out its lights. “The tanks left about 45 minutes later after UNIFIL protested through our liaison mechanism, saying that IDF presence was putting peacekeepers in danger.”
At 6.40 am, peacekeepers at the same post reported the firing of several smoke emitting rounds 100 metres to the north. “Despite putting on protective masks, fifteen peacekeepers suffered effects, including skin irritation and gastrointestinal reactions, after the smoke entered the camp.”
On October 14, persisting in its approach of impeding and harrying the peacekeeping force, the IDF halted “a critical UNIFIL logistical movement near Meiss ej Jebel, denying it passage. The critical movement could not be completed.”
The statement goes on to remind the IDF about its obligations to ensure the safety and security of the UN peacekeepers and property. Breaching a UN position violated UN Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006), while any deliberate attack on peacekeepers was a serious violation of international humanitarian law, in addition to breaching resolution 1701.
In an almost disdainful manner, the IDF suggested in a statement that the peacekeepers had entirely misunderstood the brutal encroachment. The actions had been motivated by goodwill to evacuate soldiers wounded by an anti-tank missile. “For the sake of evacuating the wounded, two tanks drove backwards, in a place where they could not advance otherwise in light of the threat of shooting, a few metres towards the UNIFIL position.” The smokescreen had been created to aid the evacuation, while the entire operation was conducted throughout with continuous contact with the UN peacekeepers. After a time, the dressing of lies becomes tatty and banal.
Typically, it fell to the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to shed some light on the mendacious fog. UNIFIL, he suggested, had to immediately withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon. “It is time for you,” stated the PM in a pointed message to Guterres, “to withdraw UNIFIL from Hezbollah strongholds and from the areas of combat.” Yet again, international law which, in this case, provides legitimacy to the UN peacekeeping operations in the area, could be treated as a tissue easily torn.
Israeli soldiers say 'Generals' Plan' already underway in northern Gaza
Lubna Masarwa
A man is pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building after an Israeli
air strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza, on 15 October 2024 (Omar
al-Qattaa/AFP)
Israeli media has reported evidence that a plan to ethnically cleanse northern Gaza and kill any Palestinians who remain is underway.
Three Israeli reserve soldiers serving in Gaza told Haaretz this week that they believe the "Generals' Plan", also known as the Eiland Plan, is being implemented.
“The goal is to give the residents who live north of the Netzarim area a deadline to move to the south of the strip. After this date, whoever will remain in the north will be considered an enemy and will be killed," a soldier stationed in the Netzarim Corridor was quoted as saying.
"It doesn’t conform to any standard of international law. People sat and wrote a systematic order with charts and an operational concept, at the end of which you shoot whoever isn’t willing to leave. The very existence of this idea is unfathomable.”
Over the past 10 days, as Israeli forces ordered hundreds of thousands of people to flee northern Gaza before launching a new offensive, Israeli media and analysts have suggested that the military is implementing this controversial plan.
There are now increasing signs that even if the policy has not been adopted by top military officials who are reportedly discussing it, the plan is already being carried out, Haaretz reported on Wednesday.
"Ideas such as deliberately opening fire close to a population and even steps towards starving the inhabitants are being debated," wrote Haaretz journalist Amos Harel.
"These ideas haven’t officially been validated in the IDF chain of command, but the very fact that they are being discussed, and the political involvement of right-wing parties and media outlets, is trickling down."
A second soldier told Haaretz: “The commanders say openly that the Eiland Plan is being promoted by the IDF."
A senior general staff officer responded to Haaretz, saying: "We take orders only from the chief of staff and pass them on to the divisional commanders. Many people have different worldviews and that's fine, but that does not dictate the operational plans. There is no starvation of the population here in order to evacuate them. No way."
'Complete nonsense'
Two Israeli experts have said that they believe the "General's Plan" is "complete nonsense" and predicated on pre-7 October dynamics that are no longer relevant.
Assaf David, co-founder of the Forum for Regional Thinking and head of the Israel in the Middle East Cluster at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, told Middle East Eye he thinks the Israeli military is implementing the plan to put pressure on Hamas, assuming it is the same organisation it was a year ago.
“It's an illusion. It’s not the same organisation and not in the same position. It lost many of its military capabilities and resilience and power in Gaza," David said.
“This is not what will bring the hostages back home and the government knows it. I think the government let go of the hostages and they don’t care if they die.”
Instead, he said, the strategy in northern Gaza - and Lebanon - is part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s broader plan to stay in power and “has nothing to do with security considerations”.
“What is happening now in the north is occupation, no doubt,” David said. “The world has been busy with what is going on in Lebanon and it gave Israel the chance in north Gaza. Even if it wasn’t planned, it was given an opportunity.”
Moving forward, he believes northern Gaza will be under Israeli security and military control indefinitely because it’s in Netanyahu’s interests to stay “in endless war” to avoid cases against him in court and scrutiny over his responsibility for 7 October.
Beyond that, David said, “there is no plan for Gaza, no way out" and he doesn’t expect any Arab country or the Palestinian Authority to agree to help with northern Gaza’s civil administration unless it would be part of a broader plan for Palestinian liberation.
Yagil Levy, associate professor at the Open University in Israel, recently said on the In Radio with Kletzkin podcast that the plan, beyond being morally flawed, "indicates a fundamental lack of understanding of how international politics is conducted".
“This idea that Gaza can be turned into a concentration camp, that every time people are moved according to the whims of the Israeli side, and all this will work and that when we want all this will stop and then Gaza will return to normal. This is complete nonsense,” Levy said.
“The event of October 7th should have made it clear to us that it is impossible to keep a population of millions under siege, that some of us by the way deny its very existence, it cannot be done.”
Meanwhile, in an opinion piece for Israeli news outlet Mako, Ronen Tzur, a prominent political advisor and former senior official in the Hostages' Families Forum, called for Israel to occupy territories as punishment for "whoever declares war and loses".
Tzur said Israel’s enemies must be punished by taking their territory, expelling their population, and creating new borders for Israel. He cited the seizing of Palestinian territories and the Syrian Golan heights during previous wars with Israel's Arab neighbours.
'Alarming signs'
Israeli human rights groups and major international aid organisations have called on leaders and the international community to stop Israel's forced displacement in northern Gaza.
In Israel, rights groups including Gisha, B'Tselem, Physicians for Human Rights Israel and Yesh Din, said there were "alarming signs" that the "General's Plan" was being implemented.
"States have an obligation to prevent the crimes of starvation and forcible transfer, and that if the continuation of the 'wait and see' approach will enable Israel to liquidate northern Gaza, they will be complicit," they said.
Major aid organisations warned that northern Gaza is being "wiped off the map", urging world leaders to stop the "atrocities" committed by Israeli forces.
"The Israeli forces’ assault on Gaza has escalated to a horrifying level of atrocity," said organisations such as Oxfam, Medical Aid for Palestinians (Map), ActionAid, Islamic Relief, Christian Aid and other UK-based charities on Tuesday.
"This is not an evacuation; this is forced displacement under gunfire. Since 1 October, no food has been allowed into the area, and civilians are being starved and bombed in their homes and their tents."
At least 42,409 Palestinians have been
killed and 99,153 wounded since Israel's war on Gaza began last October,
according to the latest figures from the Palestinian health ministry.
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