The IDF continues its offensive on the Palestinian enclave. This Wednesday, November 13, bombings killed at least 14 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, while forced expulsions intensify in the north of the territory.
Strikes by the Israeli army killed at least 14 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, as Israeli forces intensified their incursion into the town of Beit Hanoun in the north of the enclave, forcing the departure of residents still present on site.
According to residents, the Israeli army attacked houses housing displaced families and the rest of the population still there, estimated at a few thousand people.
These people were ordered to head south of the enclave, passing through a checkpoint that separates two towns and a refugee camp north of Gaza City.
The men were questioned while the women and children were allowed to head toward Gaza, according to Palestinian residents and doctors.
The Palestinians believe that the Israeli offensive in the north of the Gaza Strip and the evacuation of tens of thousands of people aims to create a buffer zone emptied of its inhabitants which could welcome a potential return of Jewish settlers.
“The catastrophe of 1948 is repeating itself, Israel is repeating its massacres, its displacements and its destruction,” says Saed, 48, a resident of Beit Lahiya who arrived in Gaza on Wednesday. In 1948, the first Arab-Israeli war led to the creation of the State of Israel, causing the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their villages.
“Northern Gaza is becoming a big buffer zone, Israel is carrying out ethnic cleansing before the eyes of a helpless world,” he wrote to Reuters via a messaging app.
No return of settlers
The Israeli army rejected these accusations and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he did not want to reverse the withdrawal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005. But certain members of the government, located in the hardest fringe, openly addressed this subject.
Israeli soldiers say they killed hundreds of Hamas fighters in Djabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun during their military offensive that began more than a month ago. Hamas and the armed wing of Islamic Jihad claim to have killed hundreds of Israeli soldiers.
On Tuesday, the United States warned its Israeli ally at the United Nations that there should be no more “forced displacements or starvation policies in Gaza.”
Near Beit Lahiya, five people were killed in an Israeli strike that hit a group of people near the Kamal Adwan hospital, according to doctors.
Five other people were killed in two separate attacks in Nusseirat in the center of the Palestinian enclave where the Israeli army launched a raid two days ago.
In Rafah, near the border with Egypt, an Israeli strike killed a man while three Palestinians were killed in two separate Israeli attacks in Shejaia, a suburb of Gaza City, according to medics.
