Israeli strikes kill 22 Palestinians, force new displacement in north Gaza
Palestinians are comparing the "buffer zone" being created by Israeli forces in northern Gaza through forced displacement to the Nakba of 1948.
A view of partially destroyed makeshift tents, where displaced Palestinians stay, following the Israeli attack on al-Mawasi area, in Khan Younis, Gaza on November 13, 2024. / Photo: AA
Israeli military strikes have killed at least 22 Palestinians across Gaza, as Israeli forces deepened their incursion into Beit Hanoun town in the north, forcing most remaining residents to leave.
Residents said on Wednesday Israeli forces besieged shelters housing displaced families and the remaining population, which some estimated at a few thousand, ordering them to head south through a checkpoint separating two towns and a refugee camp in the north from Gaza City.
Men were held for questioning, while women and children were allowed to continue towards Gaza City, residents and Palestinian medics said.
Israel's campaign in the north of Gaza, and the evacuation of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the area, has fueled claims from Palestinians that it is clearing the area for use as a buffer zone and potentially for a return of Jewish settlers.
"The scenes of the 1948 catastrophe are being repeated. Israel is repeating its massacres, displacement and destruction," said Saed, 48, a resident of Beit Lahia, who arrived in Gaza City on Wednesday.
"North Gaza is being turned into a large buffer zone, Israel is carrying out ethnic cleansing under the sight and hearing of the impotent world," he told Reuters via a chat app.
Saed was referring to the 1948 Middle East Arab-Israeli war which gave birth to the state of Israel and saw the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their home towns and villages in what is now Israel.
Israeli strikes continue
On Tuesday, the United States stressed at the United Nations that "there must be no forcible displacement, nor the policy of starvation in Gaza" by Israel, warning such policies would have grave implications under US and international law.
Medics said five people were killed in an Israeli strike that hit a group of people outside Kamal Adwan Hospital near Beit Lahia, while five others were killed in two separate strikes in Nuseirat in central Gaza where the army began a limited raid two days ago.
In Rafah, near the border with Egypt, one man was killed and several others were wounded in an Israeli air strike, while three Palestinians were killed in two separate Israeli air strikes in the Shejaia suburb of Gaza City, medics added.
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