{"id":281772,"date":"2024-12-02T12:01:08","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T12:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=281772"},"modified":"2024-12-02T08:40:34","modified_gmt":"2024-12-02T08:40:34","slug":"in-besieged-beit-lahiya-rubble-and-decomposing-corpses-line-the-streets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/12\/in-besieged-beit-lahiya-rubble-and-decomposing-corpses-line-the-streets\/","title":{"rendered":"In Besieged Beit Lahiya, Rubble and Decomposing Corpses Line the Streets"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Palestinian families flee the city of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip amid Israeli bombardment, 5 Nov 2024.\u00a0 (Islam Ahmad)<\/p><\/div>\n

Thousands of Palestinians in the city are facing relentless bombardment and famine as the Israeli army ramps up efforts to ethnic-cleanse northern Gaza.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

28 Nov 2024 <\/em>– \u201cWherever you go, you find corpses on the ground. Some are almost decomposed, while others have been run over by Israeli armored vehicles. We\u2019re surrounded from all directions, and people don\u2019t know where to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the current scene in Beit Lahiya, a city at the northern tip of the Gaza Strip that has been under sustained Israeli siege and bombardment since early October, as described by 43-year-old resident Ali Hamouda.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city has been subjected to massive destruction of buildings and infrastructure, in an attempt to force the remaining residents to leave,\u201d Hamouda continued. \u201cThere is no food or water, and we currently face a real famine. It\u2019s a genocide against the residents and the displaced people who are sheltering here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Israeli army launched an intense aerial and ground assault<\/a> on the northernmost areas of the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Oct. 6, in an effort to empty the region of Palestinians<\/a>. Much of the force of the operation was initially targeted at Jabalia refugee camp<\/a>, but after forcibly displacing residents and destroying most of the camp<\/a>, the military has increasingly focused its attention on Beit Lahiya.<\/p>\n

Several hundred Palestinians have been killed as a result of Israel\u2019s recent attacks on the city \u2014 including at least 50<\/a> in an airstrike on a multi-storey residential building on Nov. 17, and 93<\/a> in another strike on an apartment block on Oct. 29. Roughly one-third of the victims of both strikes were children.<\/p>\n

Gaza\u2019s civil defense<\/a> rescue workers, who are barely able to operate in the north\u2019s besieged zone, have declared<\/a> Beit Lahiya a \u201cdisaster area.\u201d The city\u2019s two hospitals, Kamal Adwan and the Indonesian Hospital, have repeatedly come under attack<\/a>. And due to the high number of casualties, residents have converted part of what was once the bustling market area into a cemetery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The UN estimates<\/a> that between 65,000 and 75,000 Gazans remain in the besieged cities of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun, and Jabalia. Mahmoud Basal, a civil defense spokesperson, put that number slightly higher: closer to 80,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation in northern Gaza, specifically in Beit Lahiya, is extremely catastrophic,\u201d Basal stressed, adding that Israel is dropping large missiles on residential buildings \u201cwithout prior warning and with residents still inside.\u201d He and his staff, he said, \u201care working in extremely difficult conditions due to the Israeli targeting of our teams. We have no equipment. We search for those trapped and pull victims from under the rubble using primitive methods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of the city\u2019s buildings which have not been totally flattened by airstrikes, shelling, drone strikes<\/a>, and bulldozers have sustained extensive shrapnel damage, making them virtually uninhabitable. Hamouda\u2019s house was completely destroyed by an Israeli attack, forcing him and his family to take shelter in a nearby building which, he said, is \u201con the verge of collapsing.\u201d<\/p>\n

And after severing Gaza\u2019s northern cities from the rest of the Strip, the military is preventing any food<\/a> or medical supplies from entering. \u201cMy family and I are now drinking unclean water, and eating the last remaining cans of legumes,\u201d Hamouda told +972.<\/p>\n

Yet despite the dire conditions and the constant Israeli warnings ordering residents to evacuate southward in the direction of Gaza City, Hamouda and his family are determined not to leave. \u201cThere is no safe place anywhere in Gaza,\u201d he said. \u201cAll residents are at risk of being bombed and killed at any moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I saw men and women drowning in their own blood\u2019<\/h3>\n

Shukri Al-Bodi, a 51-year-old from the neighborhood of Al-Shaima\u2019a in Beit Lahiya, described the situation in the city as a \u201cNakba in the 21st century.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe landmarks have disappeared \u2014 it has become a pile of rubble,\u201d he told +972. \u201cMy family and I move from place to place, fleeing from the intense shelling.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Al-Bodi, the Israeli army\u2019s relentless attacks on Beit Lahiya have left many residents without any shelter at all. \u201cWe are suffering from severe overcrowding,\u201d he explained. \u201cPeople have spread out onto the sidewalks and the streets, with no basic means of survival in the cold weather.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Palestinian<\/a><\/p>\n

Palestinians flee the city of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip amid Israeli bombardment, 5 Nov 2024. (Islam Ahmad)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe occupation is demolishing entire residential areas, and people are trapped inside their homes with nothing to eat, terrified of shells falling on them at any moment,\u201d Al-Bodi continued. \u201cSurveillance drones are routinely flying over us at low altitudes, and quadcopter drones<\/a> are opening fire at groups of civilians to force them to leave the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nermine Labed, 31, fled Beit Lahiya on foot with her four children on Nov. 17, walking for three hours until reaching the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City. \u201cWe made the journey while shells flew over our heads because there is nothing to eat or drink [in Beit Lahiya], and the situation is getting more dangerous by the day,\u201d she told +972.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile leaving the town, I saw many bodies lying on the ground, and dogs were devouring some of them,\u201d she recounted. \u201cI also saw men and women who were wounded, still alive but drowning in their own blood, with no one to help them. This is not life; we are dying slowly. How much longer will this killing and destruction continue?\u201d<\/p>\n

Khaled Al-Omari, 27, arrived in Beit Lahiya on Oct. 14 after fleeing Jabalia refugee camp. He told +972 that the Israeli army\u2019s siege of the city, including \u201csnipers positioned at all of the entrances,\u201d has severely restricted residents\u2019 freedom of movement and left them exceedingly vulnerable. \u201cWe are terrified and always wondering when it will be our turn \u2014 it seems Israel wants to exterminate us all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hardest moments I experienced were when I heard the cries of people who were alive under the rubble of their destroyed homes, which were targeted by the occupation,\u201d Al-Omari continued. \u201cThey were calling for help, but no one could do anything for them due to the absence of civil defense teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Al-Omari said, he and many other refugees sheltering in the Beit Lahia Project complex decided to \u201cresist until our last breath, despite the lack of food and water and the repeated Israeli warnings for residents to evacuate the area.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement to +972, a spokesperson for the Israeli army said that its operations in northern Gaza comply with international law, and that any claims of indiscriminate targeting are \u201ccompletely baseless.\u201d It further claimed that it was \u201cfacilitating and easing the entry of humanitarian aid\u201d into northern Gaza, and allowing for \u201csafer evacuations\u201d by arranging \u201ctemporary ceasefires.\u201d The spokesperson accused Hamas of exploiting hospitals for military purposes, which \u201crequired the IDF to take action inside hospitals against the militants.\u201d It also claimed that \u201cover 666 aid trucks containing food, water, and more have entered the northern Gaza Strip\u201d since the beginning of October.<\/p>\n

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Ibrahim Mohammad is an independent Palestinian journalist from Gaza City who covers humanitarian and social issues. He holds a BA in journalism and media from Al-Aqsa University.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original – 972mag.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

28 Nov 2024 – Thousands of Palestinians in the city are facing relentless bombardment and famine as the Israeli army ramps up efforts to ethnic-cleanse northern Gaza.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":281773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[1854,1199,87,865,88,427,965],"class_list":["post-281772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide","tag-crimes-against-humanity","tag-ethnic-cleansing","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-israel","tag-palestine","tag-war-crimes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281772"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281779,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281772\/revisions\/281779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}