Thousands trapped in Jabalia as Israel steps up attacks in northern Gaza

Israeli forces have launched deadly attacks on the Gaza Strip, including those against Deir el-Balah, Maghazi, and Nuseirat refugee camps in Gaza City and Jabalia, where MSF claimed thousands of people are trapped.

Nearly half of the fatalities occurred in northern Gaza’s Jabalia, where Israeli forces are advancing with a brutal ground offensive, according to Palestinian medics who attended the Israeli attacks in Gaza on Friday.

According to civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal, six people were killed on Friday evening when an al-Dayah family bomb targeted a residential building southwest of Gaza City.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah, said the continuing attacks have “all fed into one conclusion: mass killing going on for the sake of killing without a clear objective”.

The majority of the deaths at Deir el-Balah are caused by women and children, according to Mahmoud, who said it is the same pattern.

“If they are lucky enough, they arrive here in one piece”.

In response to the Israeli assault, the international organization Doctors Without Borders, known by its moniker MSF, reported on Friday that thousands of people were trapped inside the Jabalia refugee camp.

Anyone who tries to enter or leave is shot, according to MSF project coordinator Sarah Vuylsteke, who spoke on X.

Five MSF staff were trapped in Jabalia, she said.

“I don’t know what to do, at any moment we could die. People are starving. I am afraid to stay, and I am also afraid to leave”, she quoted Haydar, an MSF driver, as saying.

According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, at least 15 of the deaths in Jabalia have been brought on by Israeli airstrikes, including those that target schools that house displaced people, citing medical sources.

At the same school, according to Gaza’s civil defense, several people were injured by Israeli quadcopter fire. As the wounded are being rushed to the Kamal Adwan hospital, civil defense teams were able to transport 15 people, according to Basal.

‘ Catastrophic ‘ situation

The Israeli military has also deployed troops to Beit Hanoon and Beit Lahiya, which are both close to Jabalia.

The military has ordered residents to leave the areas where the UN estimates there are more than 400, 000 people trapped, while at least 130 have been killed in the renewed assault in northern Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials.

Northern Gaza has previously seen multiple ground and aerial attacks that left the area’s main hospital, Kamal Adwan Hospital, barely functional. It has previously been besieged, raided, and shelled.

The hospital was ordered to leave along with two other northern medical facilities earlier this week by Israeli forces.

The Government of Gaza’s Government Media Office warned in a statement on Friday that the coming hours at Kamal Adwan will be crucial for many of the children currently being treated in intensive care.

Overcrowding and the lack of much-needed fuel have added to the many challenges, the statement said. Fuel from entering the north has been prevented thanks to Israel’s continued security of crucial border crossings.

The office demanded that “to save what can be saved,” the international community intervene.

Meanwhile, Israel’s refusal to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza’s northern regions has caused the United States to express “real concern.”

Since the start of the conflict in Gaza in October, according to a report for Brown University’s Costs of War project, the US has provided at least $ 17.9 billion in military aid to Israel.

Source: Aljazeera