‘Tragedy in Jabalia’ as Israel army tightens siege in north Gaza

People try to rescue survivors from the rubble of an Israeli strike in northern Gaza’s Jabalia – Copyright AFP/File Adnan Beci

Omar al-Qattaa

Standing in the ruins of his home, Nidal al-Arabeed took stock after more than 10 of his family members were killed by Israeli air strikes on the city of Jabalia, as the army tightened its seige on northern Gaza.

Among those killed were his parents and the children of his two siblings.

“My whole family was martyred when Israeli warplanes bombed our house without any warning,” said Arabeed, 40, who worked as a daily labourer before war devastated Gaza.

“They destroyed every house in our neighbourhood and many were killed, including 11 members of the neighbouring Al-Sayed family.”

For over a week, Israeli forces have been engaged in a sweeping air and ground assault targeting northern Gaza, including Jabalia, amid claims that Palestinian militant group Hamas is regrouping in the area.

“What is happening in Jabalia is a disaster and a real tragedy,” said Arabeed.

“People are trapped. If they don’t die of shelling, they will soon die of thirst and hunger because the siege is getting tighter.”

On Tuesday, an AFP journalist saw men, women and children, often in groups, leaving their areas with whatever belongings they could carry — be it in cars, donkey carts, bicycles or simply on their heads.

In Jabalia’s Saftawi neighbourhood, a group of people rescued a man after pulling him from a sea of rubble, while a boy picked through the wreckage of his destroyed home, searching for anything to salvage.

The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s attack on October 7 last year, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures which includes hostages killed in captivity.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed 42,344 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations has described as reliable.

– Mounting death toll –

Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least 69 people have been killed in the military operation in Jabalia, while many remained trapped under the wreckage of bombed-out houses.

The Israeli military has defended the campaign, saying its forces were targeting “terrorists embedded inside civilian areas”, and accusing Hamas of preventing residents from fleeing.

Thuraya Taha Asaliya — who has been displaced seven times since the war began and is currently in the Beit Hanoun area of northern Gaza — said her husband was stuck in Jabalia.

“He is trapped in the Jabalia Girls School,” said Asaliya, a 40-year-old housewife.

“There are tanks there and people cannot leave. The situation is difficult for them, there is no water or any other basic thing.”

Other neighbourhoods in northern Gaza tell a similar story, where many people are left homeless every day as their homes are pummelled by Israeli strikes.

“The whole area has been reduced to ashes,” said Rana Abdel Majid, 38, from the Al-Faluja area of northern Gaza.

Majid said entire blocks have been levelled.

“The children are crying, terrified by the indiscriminate, merciless bombing. It’s like collective extermination,” she said.

“If the siege continues for two more days we will die of hunger.”

– ‘No hope left’ –

The Israeli military said it was facilitating the transfer of humanitarian aid into northern Gaza, including fuel for hospitals and allowing the transfer of patients from one hospital to another.

Some 30 trucks carrying flour and food from the World Food Programme entered north Gaza through the Erez West crossing on Monday, according to the military. 

But Heba Morayef of Amnesty International accused Israel of “forcing civilians to choose between starvation or displacement while their homes and streets are relentlessly pounded by bombs and shells”.

The Red Cross’s head of operations for Gaza, Adrian Zimmerman, said hospitals were also under “immense strain” as they struggled to cope with rising demand with limited supplies.

As the siege continues, residents like Asaliya have been overcome by despair, fearing every night may be their last.

“There is no hope left,” she said. 

“The whole world has turned its back on us.”