Tens of thousands flee Jabalia after Israel sends more troops to northern Gaza

Tens of thousands of Palestinians are evacuating the Jabalia refugee camp and surrounding areas, as Israel’s military deepens its incursion into this densely populated area of northern Gaza. 

UN spokesperson Louise Wateridge said Wednesday that "tens of thousands of people have been displaced from northern areas" amid the fresh Israeli ground operation. 

Gaza’s Government Media Office said Wednesday that at least 770 Palestinians have been killed and over 1,000 wounded in northern Gaza since Oct. 4, when Israeli forces launched a large-scale ground offensive in the Jabalia area, announcing that the military’s aim was to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping.  

Though Israeli airstrikes have continued across Gaza for the past 13 months, the military is now concentrated in the northern area of Jabalia, which contains the Jabalia refugee camp, the largest such camp in Gaza, located roughly 8 kilometers (5 miles) north of Gaza City. 

Israel’s military issued evacuation orders on Oct. 7 for the Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia areas of northern Gaza, telling residents to move southward to a humanitarian camp in Al-Mawasi, which itself has been repeatedly hit by Israeli airstrikes, most recently in September. 

On Tuesday, UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said on X that “in northern Gaza, people are just waiting to die."

Lazzarini said that UNRWA staff "cannot find food, water or medical care." "The smell of death is everywhere as bodies are left lying on the roads or under the rubble. Missions to clear the bodies or provide humanitarian assistance are denied [by Israel]," he said. 

On Wednesday, the Israeli military posted on X an aerial video of the Jabalia area that shows “tens of thousands of citizens” evacuating by foot. The military wrote that it is “allowing citizens to evacuate for their own safety in a safe manner and through orderly routes,” as it continues the “breaking of the Hamas siege on Jabalia.”  

הלחץ הצבאי של אוגדה 162 על המרחב למול מחבלים וטרור מתגבר ובמקביל צה״ל מאפשר לאזרחים להתפנות למען בטחונם באופן בטוח ודרך נתיבים מסודרים.

שבירת המצור של חמאס על ג׳באליא מתבטאת בעשרות אלפי אזרחים שמתפנים מהאיזור מאתמול בשעות הבוקר>> pic.twitter.com/J2bCfzURMX

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) October 23, 2024

Following an Israeli attack on the Jabalia refugee camp on Oct. 11 that killed at least 22 people and injured over 90, Hamas released a statement condemning Israeli military action in northern Gaza, saying that its “massacres are a continuation of the ongoing criminal genocide against our people.” Referring to the attack on Oct. 11, Hamas said that Israel was attempting to “punish the population for their resilience and rejection of displacement.”  

As a result of the military’s operations in northern Gaza, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday that it was unable to carry out its polio vaccination campaign for children in the area.  

“The current conditions, including ongoing attacks on civilian infrastructure, continue to jeopardize people’s safety and movement in northern Gaza, making it impossible for families to safely bring their children for vaccination and health workers to operate,” WHO said in a statement. 

The final phase of the vaccination campaign, which aims to vaccinate 119,279 children across northern Gaza, was set to start on Wednesday. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is currently on a multistop visit to the region in hopes of making progress on a Gaza cease-fire, told reporters in Tel Aviv on Wednesday that "more progress needs to be made, and most critically, it needs to be sustained" in terms of aid flow to Gaza. 

Since Oct. 7 of last year, over 42,792 people have been killed in Gaza and 100,412 others have been wounded, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.  

Meanwhile, Israel’s military on Wednesday accused six journalists belonging to Qatar's Al Jazeera network of being operatives for Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, referring to them as “terrorist-journalists” in a Hebrew statement posted online. The military claimed it uncovered documents that prove the journalists “spearhead the propaganda for Hamas at Al Jazeera.” Al Jazeera denied the accusations in a statement on Wednesday, calling them "unfounded" and "a blatant attempt to silence the few remaining journalists in the region." The network rejected what it says is the "use of fabricated evidence."

The accusation comes less than a month after Israel raided and shut down the Al Jazeera bureau in the occupied West Bank, which sparked heavy backlash from the international community. The Committee to Protect Journalists estimates that, as of Oct. 23, 2024, at least 128 journalists and media workers have been killed since the Israel-Gaza war began.