THE Israeli military siege on the northern Gaza Strip has left about 5,000 Palestinians dead or missing after 100 days of brutal attacks that have only intensified amid talks of a potential mediated agreement between Israel and Hamas.
Another 9,500 Palestinians were injured as a result of the Israeli military operation in the north that was launched in early October, a medical source told Al Jazeera on Sunday.
Gaza’s Government Media Office on Sunday described the Israeli siege as “the most horrific form of ethnic cleansing, displacement and destruction” that has affected hundreds of thousands in the war-ravaged area.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said north Gaza is now a “ghost area” of vast destruction and rubble, but some people have managed to stay alive there, refusing to leave.
“We are seeing Palestinians being systematically targeted in every single place across the Gaza Strip. It doesn’t matter where you are – if you’re in a school, a shelter, a makeshift camp or even a hospital,” she said.
Kamal Adwan Hospital, the most prominent healthcare facility in the north, was torched and destroyed by Israeli forces in late December as part of the siege, and the fate of its arrested director Hussam Abu Safia remains unknown.
As Israeli politicians and settler groups openly discuss prospects of building settlements in north Gaza, the siege shows no signs of stopping.
Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in the Mukhabarat area in northern Gaza City, witnesses said on Sunday afternoon. Israeli drone fire later killed a young man in the Shati refugee camp.
Overnight, there were heavy Israeli attacks on the northwestern areas of Gaza City. At least eight Palestinians were killed on Saturday when the Israeli military directly hit yet another school-turned-shelter in north Gaza’s Jabalia, calling it a Hamas “command and control centre”.
Unrelenting attacks are also targeting other areas across the enclave many times each day, with some of the latest hitting the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.
The Israeli military on Sunday issued another forced evacuation order, targeting people living in residential blocks in the northern part of Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. Residents were told they would risk being killed if they did not abandon the area.
The Gaza Civil Defence announced on Sunday that the Israeli army has killed at least 70 children across the enclave in the past five days alone.
