How many people are trying to get out of the Jabaliya refugee camp that has been encircled by the Israeli army in northern Gaza since October 6, cut off from food and medical care and exposed to gunfire even in their homes? Probably tens of thousands remain trapped by operations carried out over the past 10 days by the 162nd division, supported by tanks and drones. The Israeli army claims to have conducted "targeted raids on dozens of terrorist infrastructure sites in the area, eliminated dozens of terrorists and confiscated numerous weapons." In recent days, the UN's humanitarian agency OCHA has reported that dozens of people have been killed, including women and children. According to Gaza's civil defense, there are still victims under the rubble.
The number of inhabitants trapped in Jabaliya, which has already seen two operations since the start of the war a year ago, is impossible to determine. Bombardments have made any movement in and around the camp potentially lethal, with the strikes extending beyond it into a large part of northern Gaza. Some 430,000 people in total are trapped in this area, according to a UN agency count.
The army's statements make no mention of the conditions under which the siege of Jabaliya is being carried out nor of the contradictory orders given to the residents in the rest of the northern region. While people have been ordered to leave for the south, doing so has been nearly impossible due to heavy gunfire. The army's "evacuation orders," described by Amnesty International as "Israel's euphemism for forced displacement," are addressed to a population unable to obey them, even by force.
Sarah Davies, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, who was in Gaza until Tuesday, recounted the desperate pleas of families with children and elderly members who are unsure of how to escape the bombed-out and starving area. "The logic of the maps with the evacuations may seem clear from a distance, but in reality, on the ground, it's impossible to understand where the lines are between dangerous places and those that should be spared," she said.
Is the inferno unleashed in Jabaliya part of a wider strategy to forcibly evacuate this region of northern Gaza through violence and hunger by cutting off all supplies? In the US, the issue has prompted a reaction from the administration. On Sunday, October 13, a letter from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was sent to their Israeli counterparts, asking them to increase the volume of humanitarian aid authorized to enter Gaza within 30 days, warning that failure to do so could bring US arms deliveries to Israel would to be called into question. It remains to be seen whether these provisions, three weeks before the US presidential election, have any chance of being followed up. However, the situation in the enclave is becoming untenable. Since the spring "the amount of aid delivered has dropped by more than 50%," they said alarmingly in the letter, which was leaked to the press.
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