Islam Times - Weaponizng Hunger and Disease Prompting a Holocaust in Northern Gaza by Israel

Islam Times - Gaza war has passed its 425th day as in recent weeks, the Israeli genocidal campaign has been focusing on massacring the Palestinians of the north of the coastal enclave. Though many Israeli security and political officials have repeatedly said that continuation of Gaza war is of no avail to Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is intensifying the humanitarian catastrophe under pressure of his hardline cabinet allies as part of plans for ethnic cleansing and implementation of the "generals' plan", drawing condemnation from the UN and rights groups.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on the international community to lay the foundation for lasting peace in Gaza and across the region as a whole on Monday, during an international conference in support of Gaza in Egypt.

“Israel’s move to ban the activities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) threatens the humanitarian efforts of the Palestinian people and an immediate ceasefire accompanied by the release of Israeli prisoners,” Guterres said.

This comes as the Israeli forces attacked three members of the World Food Programme team in Khan Younis south of Gaza in recent days. The occupation army has been deliberately targeting aid workers in Gaza, especially those providing food to refugees, in order to exploit the worsening Palestinian famine for its stated war goals, but this tactic has not met the demands of Tel Aviv’s leaders in the past 14 months.

On the other hand, Ajith Sunghay, the Head of UN Human Rights Office for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, also announced that the UN cannot send any humanitarian aid to northern Gaza because the Israelis have prevented passage of aid convoys, while about 70,000 Palestinians are still there.

After visit of refugee camps in northern Gaza, Sunghay talked about horrible living conditions, severe food shortage, and deplorable sanitation conditions. He also called for desperate need for humanitarian aids and the necessity for Israeli to allow them in.

He said: "There is a risk of hunger, disease and death in the Gaza Strip, and the Palestinians are struggling to survive, to the point that large groups of women and children are searching for food among the garbage."

The World Food Programme announced the suspension of its activities in Gaza due to the difficult conditions ahead, which has increased the humanitarian disaster of famine and hunger, especially after the closure of Palestinian refugee shelters and bakeries and the end of flour reserves in the market.

In addition to the shortage of food, the health situation in Gaza is also dire. The director of hospitals in the Gaza Health Ministry described the health situation in the strip as catastrophic, saying that only 5 percent of hospitals are operational and the rest have been destroyed due to Israeli crimes, and there is a severe shortage of health facilities in all surgical departments of these hospitals.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently warned about severe shortage of medicine, food, fuel, and shelter in Gaza especially in the north, calling for Israel to allow aids in.

Intense crisis in northern Gaza

Although all areas of Gaza are in a humanitarian disaster, the situation in northern Gaza is far worse than in the south.

Israel, which has put northern Gaza under its rocket and artillery fire over the past two months, is resorting to any crime to drive Palestinians out of the area.

The Israeli magazine website +972 reported in this regard: “The streets of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza have become a pile of rubble and corpses, and those who have managed to survive so far are at risk of dying from hunger and continuous Israeli attacks.”

The Israel media outlet quoted residents of northern Gaza as saying that dogs are tearing apart the bodies of the victims, and the Israeli occupation has destroyed all residential areas, and people are locked inside their homes without anything to eat, waiting to be bombed at any moment."

Reports add that constant military operations in Gaza have so far led to displacement of 130,000 people who are seeking shelter in other destroyed houses, medical centers, and shops, and many more have to stay outdoors in cold weather.

Israeli plan for buffer zone in northern Gaza

In such catastrophic conditions that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are struggling with hunger, Netanyahu and his hardline cabal are pushing for realization of their ambitious dreams.

The Yedioth Aharonot newspaper reported on Monday, citing informed sources, that the Israeli army is completing the project to create a buffer zone in Gaza, and that the area is one to two kilometers deep inside Gaza and close to the borders of occupied Palestine.

Israeli army, according to reports, will target anyone who enters the buffer zone. Advanced monitoring and filming equipment has also been installed in this area.

The New York Times also reported that Israel is building military bases in central Gaza and that the Israelis have demolished more than 600 buildings in this area in recent months to create a buffer zone and expand their military bases.

In recent months, the Israelis have occupied a border line called the Netzarim Corridor which separates the north and south of Gaza, in order to prevent the return of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees to the north of this strip.

With this move, Netanyahu's government intends to occupy northern Gaza and implement the hardline ministers' demand to build Zionist settlements, regardless of the fact that tens of thousands of Palestinians will be killed and displaced in order to achieve this policy.

The occupation of northern Gaza is one of the main demands of Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir who warns every day that he will leave the coalition government if the war in Gaza is halted. Therefore, Netanyahu, who is under the guillotine of hardliners , is forced to give in to their demand. Because Ben-Gvir claims that he has come to terms with Netanyahu on the Lebanese front, but will not agree to a ceasefire in Gaza.

A plot to distract attention from Gaza to Aleppo

Although ceasefire in Lebanon was expected to make ground for an end to the war in Gaza, recent events in Syria provided a favorable environment for the Israelis to take advantage.

Tel Aviv officials have been trying to divert the attention of the international community from Gaza to other hot spots in the world, and the terrorist offensive on Aleppo in northern Syria since last week had helped them to some extent to free themselves from international pressure. Because, in the view of the Israelis, they can use rejuvenated Syria crisis to expand the occupation and displace Palestinians from the northern regions.

Though the world community is these days focusing on Aleppo, experts warn it should not neglect Gaza humanitarian conditions and should continue to build pressure on Tel Aviv for immediate end to genocide against the Palestinians.

However, contrary to the expectations of Tel Aviv's leaders, Aleppo developments have failed to remove Gaza from the global spotlight, and on Monday, a conference in support of Gaza was held in Cairo, attended by Arab foreign ministers and representatives of 100 countries, UN agencies, and human rights organizations.

The participants described the humanitarian conditions "catastrophic" in Gaza and called for immediate end to war and allowing aids in.

They also voiced their strong opposition to expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories and forced displacement of the Palestinians and backed formation of an independent Palestinian state based on the two-state solution.

The policy of deepening the hunger and famine in Gaza in order to secure feats and reverse Lebanon war defeat will not solve Netanyahu's problems, however, and as the warmongering continues, Israelis will sink deeper in the quagmire caused by their cabinet hardliners.