Areas of northern Gaza gutted as Israel expands operations into south

The Israeli Occupation forces bombed two UNRWA-run schools in the north of the Gaza Strip on Saturday — Fakhoura in Jabalia refugee camp and Tal al-Zaatar in the Beit Lahia neighborhood — while also ordering the evacuation of the Shifa Hospital.

Residents of Khan Younis, a city on the southern side of the strip, have also been receiving instructions from the occupying forces since Thursday to evacuate the area for western Gaza as bombing and clashes expand in the south.

The developments come as the Israeli war cabinet also announced Saturday that it was entering a new “phase” of its ground invasion of the Palestinian enclave, with over two million Palestinians in Gaza already left with nowhere to turn as the strip is gutted of resources and aid organizations are all but incapacitated by over 40 consecutive days of the Occupation’s onslaught.

Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, which has been the target of repeated airstrikes, was bombed once again by Israel on Saturday. The Occupation airstrikes targeted the Fakhoura school, an UNRWA facility in Jabalia where thousands of displaced people were taking refuge, killing 200 people, according to the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation. Video footage of the aftermath showed the dead bodies of victims in school classrooms. The killed and wounded were transferred to the Indonesian and Kamal Adwan hospitals.

Fakhoura school was previously targeted by Israeli airstrikes two weeks ago, killing 15 people and injuring dozens.

Israel is targeting the UNRWA facilities intentionally, UNRWA spokesperson Adnan Abu Hasna told Al-Hadath news channel on Saturday night, stating that the agency shares the coordinates of shelters, schools, and all agency-affiliated sites with Israeli authorities.

Targeting schools comes alongside the clear targeting of the Shifa Hospital, where thousands of medical staff, patients and displaced people were taking refuge.

After occupying troops conducted a full scale invasion of the hospital complex on November 15, they ordered on Saturday that “anyone who could move” among the 5,000 people remaining should evacuate the hospital premises.

Eyewitnesses and journalists who spoke to Mada Masr said that people were given an hour to leave via the western side of the hospital near Wehda Street in the direction of Salah Eddin Road, the designated 20-kilometer route by which displaced Palestinians are expected to move toward the south.

“400 injured patients with open wounds were forcefully evacuated, and the Occupation forbade them from taking any medical equipment,” Shifa Hospital head Mohamed Abu Selmeyya told Al Jazeera. 500 patients, critically wounded people, babies in incubators and five medical staff were left behind. 

Of these, the Palestinian Red Crescent said it had successfully evacuated 31 premature babies from Shifa on Sunday.

The Israeli Occupation Forces spokesperson in Arabic, Avichay Adraee, demanded on Sunday the evacuation of Jabalia, Shoja’eya, Tofah and Daraj neighborhood residents in northern Gaza to reach the “humanitarian area” in southern Gaza, claiming that “Hamas has lost control over the northern area and is trying to stop you from moving to the south.”

With the Israeli war council announcing Saturday that the occupying forces will undertake a new phase of the ground invasion that began at the end of October, local journalists told Mada Masr that they suspect the Occupation army is most likely seeking to escalate the ground incursion into residential neighborhoods in northern Gaza after the troops imposed a military siege on Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia, Jabalia Camp, and Gaza City.

“The war waged by Israel aims to completely eradicate Palestinian presence in north Gaza,” stated the Palestinian Foreign Ministry on Sunday.

The Occupation Forces have been informing Palestinians in southern Gaza neighborhoods that they would expand ground incursions and operations in their direction since Thursday, instructing residents of the south to flee westward in the strip.

Limited incursions of Israeli ground forces have already assaulted areas in the south under air and artillery cover, said sources on the ground speaking to Mada Masr, with raids on Sunday targeting some residential buildings in Khan Younis, killing 15 and injuring dozens of others.

Since October 7, the number of Palestinians killed by the Occupation has increased to over 13,000 and left over 30,000 wounded, according to the latest data published by the Palestinian Government Media Office at the time of writing.