Israel launches new ground invasion of northern Gaza, heavy night of bombing recalls beginning of war

Northern Gaza, particularly the Jabalia camp, witnessed a night of terror as Israel launched a ground incursion into the area on Saturday evening, conducting continuous bombings that killed dozens, with residents describing it as the worst night since the start of the war a year ago.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians remained in northern Gaza prior to the launch of the attack. 

The assault came in line with the continued expansion of a corridor that Israeli forces are occupying in the center of the strip, known as Netsarim, part of stated plans to separate north and south Gaza and to empty the north of its citizens, turning the area into a “warzone” as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu termed it last month, according to Israeli media. 

Israeli media reports on Saturday framed the operations as intending to wrest control of the north from Hamas and to stop Palestinians displaced from northern Gaza from trying to return home.

Hours before the launch of the new offensive on the north, the Israeli military had also ordered residents of areas in central Gaza below the southern threshold of the Nestarim corridor to evacuate.

Many went to Deir al-Balah. But refuge centers in the area — a school and a mosque — were the target of heavy Israeli bombing in the early hours of Sunday morning that killed dozens and wounded more. Zuwaida, also in central Gaza, was bombed at the same time.

The Occupation bombing campaign on northern Gaza began with no prior warning or evacuation order for people in the area before the airstrikes began, the eyewitnesses said.

Missiles began to strike Jabalia around Saturday afternoon and continued without stopping through the night, accompanied by the advance of Israeli military vehicles in northwestern and northeastern parts of the strip, eyewitnesses told Mada Masr.

According to the Civil Defense in northern Gaza, dozens were killed as Israeli drones bombed Jabalia Services Club, which houses displaced people, as well as the houses of the families of Arabid, Qassasib, and Khadura, and the Shaaban family, of whom 10 were killed, while many are still missing under the rubble. The house of the Afana family, west of Jabalia, was also targeted. Journalist Hasan Hamad was among those killed in his home.

According to the eyewitnesses, the attack displaced many people who fled from  Jabalia, Karamah, Salaten and Atatra, west of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza.

Palestinian researcher on Israeli military affairs Hisham Naji told Mada Masr that “the Occupation clearly aims to empty the northern Gaza Strip of its residents and cut off all supplies to it.”

Naji suggested that Saturday night’s operation is an implementation of the plan proposed to the Israeli government by retired general Giora Eiland, which aims to deport the remaining residents of northern Gaza to the south and declare the north a closed military zone.

The plan, which Netanyahu said he is considering after it was presented by Eiland and a group of retired generals to the Israeli cabinet and the Knesset in September, entails the forced evacuation of the entirety of northern Gaza and its transformation into a warzone “in which every figure is a target.” It also includes cutting aid supplies to the area in order to starve and pressure Hamas fighters in the north and force Palestinian factions to offer more concessions in the stalled hostage deal negotiations.

Similar plans were also floated in August, when an Egyptian security official told Mada Masr that Israel is working to split the strip in two. Israel wants Palestinians to be concentrated in the south of the strip and to “decrease the population volume in the north,” the source added. Reconstruction would then take place only in the southern areas, which would be subject to strict security measures.

Satellite images taken in August and analyzed by Mada Masr showed that the Occupation military had expanded Netsarim both northward and southward despite the removal of the Israeli forces in the corridor being one of the discussion points of the ongoing ceasefire negotiations at the time. The forces stationed at Netsarim have been for the past weeks demolishing the evacuated homes in the areas around the corridor.

Accordingly, on Sunday morning, Occupation military spokesperson Avichay Adraee posted an evacuation order for the residents of northern Gaza announcing the start of a new military operation in Jabalia led by the military’s 162nd Division, to put down “attempts to restore terrorist structures by Hamas.”

Residents were quoted by Wafa news agency on Sunday saying Israeli forces have penetrated eastern Jabalia and began besieging dozens of families inside houses and schools that house displaced people. Meanwhile, new airstrikes are targeting residential areas in Jabalia al-Balad.

Just 24 hours earlier, the Occupation military had issued renewed evacuation orders on Saturday, instructing residents to head south and leave areas along the southern perimeter of the Netsarim corridor.

Thousands of residents were displaced by the Saturday orders from areas to the east and north of the Bureij and Nuseirat refugee camps, adjacent to Netsarim. They headed toward the western areas of neighboring Deir al-Balah, according to a Mada Masr correspondent in central Gaza.

The evacuation to areas around central Gaza offered no safety to the displaced Palestinians, however, as the Israeli military launched airstrikes on the area in the early hours of Sunday, destroying a mosque sheltering displaced people near Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the city. 

Mohamed Abu Amra, who was displaced and taking shelter in the hospital compound, told Mada Masr that the strike on the mosque began around 2 am. He said the walls were blown hundreds of meters away by the bombing.

Abu Amra added that the mosque housed many elderly people and others who lost their families to the Israeli bombardment and had no one to stay with, and that many were torn to pieces by the blast.

Simultaneously, Israeli airstrikes also bombed the Ibn Rushd School in Zawaida, near Nuseirat camp, killing and wounding more Palestinians, including children.

“I was displaced five times. I want to leave the school, it's not safe. Wherever you go, it's not safe. They bombed us while we were sleeping at 2 am. We were all injured in the school. What is the fault of these children?” Shady Ouda, a displaced Palestinian sheltering in the school, told Mada Masr.

At least 26 were killed and dozens more were injured in the two attacks on central Gaza, the Health Ministry in Gaza said today.