By Andre Damon
Two weeks after Israel began its ethnic cleansing operation in northern Gaza, aimed at violently displacing the 400,000 Palestinians who remain there, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) forced the population of Jabalia refugee camp out at gunpoint Monday amid daily massacres and deliberate starvation.
These scenes took place as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the representative of the country directing, arming, funding and overseeing the genocide, traveled to Israel to oversee the carnage in person.
The IDF published drone footage Monday of hundreds of people streaming from the rubble of the camp, with Israeli troops pointing weapons at them.
“The IDF allows civilians to safely evacuate from the area via organized routes,” boasted IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee upon sharing the video of the ethnic cleansing operation in a post on X. In reality, Reuters reported, tens of thousands of men were rounded up while women and children were forced to move south at gunpoint.
“We are facing death by bombs, by thirst and hunger,” Raed, a resident of Jabalia camp, told Reuters. “Jabalia is being wiped out, and there is no witness to the crime; the world is blinding its eyes.”
Israeli forces have killed 650 Palestinians in northern Gaza since the start of the assault 17 days ago, including 41 on Monday. “Genocide is unfolding in northern Gaza in its clearest form, in full view of the world,” the Palestinian Authority said in a statement Sunday.
In one of its most bluntly worded declarations yet, the UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territories reported orders by the IDF are “leading to forced displacement” and “may be causing the destruction of the Palestinian population in Gaza’s northernmost governorate through death and displacement.” The statement added, “This is particularly the case around Jabalia, Beit Lahiya, and Beit Hanoun.”
The UN statement declared that “For two weeks since October 6, the Israeli military has taken measures that make life in north Gaza impossible for Palestinians while repeatedly ordering the displacement of the entire governorate,” adding, “Israeli authorities prevented the entry of all essential supplies to north Gaza.”
It noted further, “While the Israeli military has demanded that all civilians leave north Gaza, it has continued to relentlessly bomb and attack the area, especially in and around Jabalia Camp.”
The UN statement noted that “Palestinian men are being taken into custody by the IDF, raising fears that they may be subjected to arbitrary detention as well as torture.”
Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, said, “Israeli authorities continue to deny humanitarian missions to reach the north with critical supplies including medicine and food for people under siege.” He added that “remaining shelters are so overcrowded, some displaced people are now forced to live in the toilets.”
Lazzarini accused Israel of “denying & weaponizing humanitarian assistance to achieve military purposes.” He added, “People attempting to flee are getting killed, their bodies left on the street.”
Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, said the Israeli army had completely besieged the hospital and had ordered its staff to leave. “The hospital’s blood units have run out completely,” he said in a statement Monday. “We are implementing a priority treatment method for patients. This is the reality.”
One nurse near Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza told Reuters, “The army is burning the schools next to the hospital, and no one can enter or leave the hospital.”
According to the official death count, Israeli troops and bombs have killed at least 42,500 Palestinians, with another 10,000 uncounted. Once the effect of Israel’s deliberate infliction of starvation and the spread of communicable diseases is accounted for, the real death toll could exceed 186,000, The Lancet reported in July—meaning the real death toll could now be in the hundreds of thousands.
The implementation of the total starvation and complete ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza—referred to as the “generals’ plan,” coined by Giora Eiland, the former head of Israel’s National Security Council—comes as the United States is deepening its direct involvement in the genocide.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s arrival in Israel Monday marks his eleventh trip to the region since Israel started its war of annihilation against the Palestinian people in Gaza last October. His arrival coincided with the final deployment of 100 US combat troops in Israel, manning an advanced missile defense battery that will be used to support an imminent US-Israeli attack on Iran. “That system is in place,” US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told reporters Monday.
As Israeli ground troops continued their ethnic cleansing operation in northern Gaza, Israeli jets leveled apartment buildings and other civilian infrastructure throughout Lebanon. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said 24 people were injured, and four people were killed Monday after 13 Israeli strikes throughout Beirut Monday.
The Sahel General Hospital was evacuated amid panic after Israel claimed that a Hezbollah bunker was located under the hospital, repeating claims made prior to the destruction of Shifa Hospital in Gaza amid reports of mass summary executions of civilians.
22 October 2024
Source: countercurrents.org