As the world looks to Lebanon, pressure in the Gaza Strip is intensifying. Hospitals have to close, living conditions worsen and people are once again forced to leave the area. But some stay.
The voice message from Hossam Abu Safia came the day before yesterday. He is the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. The hospital endured a year of war. Now, according to the leader, it’s about to end. The hospital must be evacuated within 24 hours – with all patients, the injured and the medical staff.
The Israeli army informed Hossam Abu Safia directly about this. “They threatened me that if we don’t evacuate tomorrow, the hospital will be in danger. It seems to be a new strategy to drive our people out of the north of the Gaza Strip by destroying the entire health system, including hospitals .”
Meanwhile, it is heard that the Hossam Abu Safieh hospital has stopped work. If you look at the maps on which the zones that are to be evacuated are marked, it becomes clear: the north of the Gaza Strip is to be evacuated. There are reports of heavy fighting with Hamas. It is said to have thousands of fighters again in the area that was actually already conquered by Israel.
“The Generals’ Plan”
What is now apparently being implemented is what is referred to in Israel as “the generals’ plan.” Giora Eiland is one of these generals. He was once head of the National Security Council. Now he has published a video in which he explains the plan using maps and martial music.
“It would be right to say to the people of the north: We are not advising you to leave the north of the Gaza Strip. We are ordering you to do so.” There are two safe corridors that are secured by the Israeli army. Anyone who leaves the north will receive food and water. But in a week, the entire northern area of the Gaza Strip will be declared a restricted military area and no aid deliveries will be allowed into this restricted military area. “The 5,000 terrorists who remain in this area can then either give up or starve to death,” said Giora Eiland.
Army takes responsibility for supplies
Some are concerned with the fight against Hamas. Others, like the right-wing extremist minister Bezalel Smotrich, have long had more far-reaching plans for the north of the Gaza Strip. He is also responsible for the civil administration of the Palestinian territories and is satisfied that the army should now also take care of the population in Gaza.
“I am very happy that the Prime Minister has finally ordered to proceed with the transfer of responsibility for humanitarian aid to the army.” That is crucial. But they do not yet agree on another point – the question of settlement. Smotrich takes a clear position on this: “Where there are no Jewish settlements, it will be difficult to maintain a military presence for a long time.”
Aid organizations are sounding the alarm
New Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip – that is Smotrich’s dream. The prerequisite would be a systematic expulsion of the population, as is possibly now underway. Some talk about ethnic cleansing.
Aid organizations are sounding the alarm, such as Sarah Vuylsteke, who coordinates aid in the Gaza Strip for Doctors Without Borders. She told that ARD-Studio Tel Aviv: “This latest violent displacement of thousands of people from the northern Gaza Strip to the south is turning the north into a desert desert and worsening the situation in the south, where more than a million people already live in catastrophic conditions in a small part of the Gaza Strip.”
There is already hardly any access to water, medical care and security. It is inconceivable how more people can fit into this small space. “In the past twelve months, people have been subjected to endless displacement and persistent bombing,” emphasizes Sarah Vuylsteke. “This has to stop.”
“We ate animal food”
And the people in the north? We reach Naima Ayob. She is 21 and was a student until the war. The house in Gaza City where her family lives has not yet been destroyed. She also sends a voice message and says: She and her family want to stay.
We won’t go south. It’s not easy for anyone who has endured it here for a year. We ate animal food and drank dirty water. We didn’t have a shower and suffered for a long time. My grandparents can’t walk and my mother had a baby after waiting 20 years. We can’t live in the harsh conditions in a tent in the south.”
According to the UN, around 400,000 people still lived in the north of the Gaza Strip. Their expulsion to the south is likely to further exacerbate the humanitarian crisis.
Jan-Christoph Kitzler, ARD Tel Aviv, tagesschau, October 9th, 2024 7:55 p.m