Israeli forces have intensified their squeeze around the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza, killing at least 10 people queuing for food, according to Palestinian medics, and ordered people to evacuate as they press on with their ground assault on the area.
The Israeli army launched a ground assault again in northern Gaza 10 days ago, including in Beit Hanoon and Beit Lahiya. Backed by warplanes, the army has continued to pound the ravaged area that has seen multiple assaults throughout the year-long war.
More than 400,000 people remain trapped in the area. They have been unable to move southwards after the Israeli military ordered forced evacuations due to security concerns.
“We have been hit from the air and the ground, non-stop for a week. They want us to leave, they want to punish us for refusing to leave our homes,” Marwa, 26, who fled with her family to a school in Gaza City, told the Reuters news agency.
People were afraid they would never be able to return if they head south, she said.
The United Nations Human Rights Office said the Israeli military appeared to be “cutting off North Gaza completely from the rest of the Gaza Strip”.
“The separation of North Gaza raises further concerns that Israel does not intend to allow civilians to return to their homes, and the repeated calls for all Palestinians to leave northern Gaza raise grave concerns of large-scale forced transfer of the civilian population,” it said in a statement.
The renewed assault has underlined how difficult life has become for civilians in Gaza as fighting has shifted between different areas of the enclave.
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