In Northern Gaza Strip: Massacres and starvation for the purpose of displacement

Explosions, fire and smoke, warplanes, drones and tanks accompanied by hundreds of Israeli occupation soldiers. Entire neighborhoods turn to  rubble in the blink of an eye, camps turn to ashes.

The bodies of dozens of martyrs are lying in the streets, no one can approach them, and children collect the remains of what remains of their families in bags. These atrocities are part of the occupation’s crimes against the people of northern Gaza Strip for 23 days in light of the ongoing war of extermination on the Strip for more than a year now.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said:” The darkest moments of the war are unfolding today in the northern Gaza Strip, where the Israeli military is effectively subjecting an entire population to bombardment, siege and the threat of starvation.” He warned that Israel’s policies and practices in the area threaten to empty it of all Palestinians. He added: “What we are facing may amount to egregious crimes, including crimes against humanity”.

The brutality of the occupation clearly reflects its attempts to empty the northern Gaza Strip of its people who refused to respond to orders to evacuate to the south. These attempts are part of its implementation of what is known as the “Generals’ Plan,” which was developed by Giora Eiland, the former commander of the occupation army, and a number of former military officials, and supported by the United States.

The plan calls for reoccupying the northern Gaza Strip by cutting off aid, terrorizing the residents, and closing off all means of escape for them, leaving them with nothing left but death by bombing or hunger and thirst. This plan is consistent with the statements of the occupation officials since the beginning of the aggression, as its Minister of War said in the first days of the aggression: “The people of Gaza are “human animals” who must be killed, displaced, and their water, electricity, food, and medicine must be cut off.”

Hundreds of settlers, with the participation of Bezalel Smotrich, Itamar Ben-Gvir, other ministers in the occupation government, and members of the Knesset, held a conference a few days ago under the title “Preparing to Resettle Gaza” in the Be’eri settlement on the outskirts of the Strip. During which they called for the displacement of the people of the Strip and the re-settlement not only in the north, but also in every inch of the Strip.

Mahmoud Nassar from Beit Lahia says,” The occupation is trying to force us to leave our homes by all means so that it can monopolize the land. Thousands of Palestinians are still steadfast and refuse to be displaced to any other place, and they are in real need of medical and emergency services around the clock.” He called the Red Cross and relief organizations to intervene urgently to stop the massacre committed by the occupation.

Palestinian Civil Defense spokesman in Gaza Mahmoud Basal said that they they have completely stopped providing service in the northern Gaza Strip since last Wednesday evening after the occupation army arrested 5 of its members and bombed the ambulance headquarters in Beit Lahia, injuring a number of cadres and burning the only fire engine operating in the north.

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas called on the international community to take immediate action to stop the crime of forced displacement, ethnic cleansing and massacres carried out by the occupation as part of its criminal scheme known as the “Generals’ Plan” in the northern Gaza Strip.

Souha Suleiman