JABALIA — For the past nine days, the Israeli army has been imposing a complete siege on the northern Gaza city of Jabalia, as well as other nearby neighborhoods. There are reports of the IDF committing horrific massacres against civilians, and threatening to storm the last hospitals that remain operational in the area. At least 22 people sheltering in a local school this week were reported killed in an Israeli air strike.
The army revealed its goal for the military operation in Jabalia from day one, when it called on its 200,000 residents (according to the Civil Defense) to evacuate via Salah al-Din Road to the east, then head to the southern parts of Gaza. This is known as the “Generals’ Plan.”
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Observers suggest that the military operations, initiated by the Israeli occupation army in northern Gaza, aim to evacuate the region and reoccupy it for settlement. This would be the effective implementation of the “Generals’ Plan.”
The “Generals’ Plan,” drafted by senior Israeli reserve officers led by Major General Giora Eiland (former head of the Security Council), includes forcibly relocating all northern residents to the south.
In the first phase of the plan, the army evacuates residents from northern Gaza to the south over a week. After this period, the north is declared a closed military zone.
The second phase involves imposing a complete siege on the northern area, blocking any entry or exit, including food, fuel, and water supplies. The siege will only be lifted if the resistance lays down its arms and surrenders, effectively leaving Gaza without an “enemy,” according to Israeli media.
Shutting down Erez Crossing
On the ground, a Daraj correspondent in Gaza observed the implementation of the “Generals’ Plan,” with the army tightening the siege on the residents of Jabalia and nearby Beit Lahiya, preventing the entry of food and water, and committing more massacres.
On Monday morning, Israeli aircraft targeted an UNRWA aid distribution center, killing 10 Palestinians and injuring dozens, according to official Palestinian medical sources.
The goal of this bombing is to prevent any northern residents from obtaining basic necessities and to continue pressuring them to heed the calls for evacuation to the south.
Hours after the bombing, Israel’s Ministry of Defense announced the transfer of 30 trucks containing flour and food supplies for the World Food Program from Ashdod Port through the “Erez” crossing at the far northern end of Gaza, following political directives. However, according to testimonies from inside Jabalia, nothing has reached them.
Displacement plan
Following the Israeli statement, Gaza‘s Government Media Office said that the Israeli occupation army is lying and attempting to mislead public opinion regarding the entry of flour trucks into northern Gaza.
In a written statement on Monday, it clarified that the occupation has imposed a strict, uninterrupted 170-day siege on the governorates of Gaza and the north, closing all humanitarian corridors while continuing to commit massacres, killing over 342 people, and injuring hundreds of civilians, children, and women in a continuous 10-day massacre.
The only operating bakery in the north was bombed.
It described the situation in Gaza as genocide and ethnic cleansing, with the complete destruction of homes, residential neighborhoods, streets, infrastructure, hospitals, schools, mosques, and all vital sectors. This is part of the American-Israeli occupation displacement plan, which is considered the largest and most dangerous American-Israeli occupation scheme of the 21st century.
The United Nations’ World Food Program warned in a statement of the “catastrophic impact of the Israeli siege on the food security of Gaza’s residents,” confirming that “the occupation has closed the main crossings linked to Gaza and the north, preventing food aid from entering since early October.”
The UN also said that the only operating bakery (Shalfouh) in the north was bombed, and its flour storage was burned.
Northern Gaza has thus become completely isolated, with conditions deteriorating rapidly. Aid reaching Gaza as a whole has hit its lowest levels in months, with basic food and commercial goods scarce as people have exhausted their means of coping with the dire humanitarian situation. The collapse of food security systems and the real threat of famine loom closer.
Testimonies from Jabalia
Forty-year-old Mohammed Asaad, a resident of Jabalia, said: “The food at home is running out, and the water too. The Israeli bombing doesn’t stop, especially at night. We are living off the canned goods we got from UNRWA.”
He adds that: “The Israeli army’s goal in intensifying the siege and killing civilians in Jabalia is to forcibly displace its residents to the southern part of the Gaza Strip, but none of the residents are considering that because they know what awaits them in the south.”
Asaad prefers to resort to “eating tree leaves in Jabalia rather than fleeing,” fearing the fate of his relatives, who left the north in October 2023 and are living displaced in tents every since.
Everything that moves
Ahmad al-Khalidi, also from Jabalia, accuses the Israeli army of planting booby-trapped water barrels in nearby alleys to “attract the besieged, thirsty residents and blow them up remotely.”
Al-Khalidi told Daraj that locals had discovered barrels by accident that had wires attached. “That made people stay away,” he said. “Then we realized the extent of the Israeli soldiers’ criminality.” He explained that “the army ordered Jabalia residents to evacuate and head south, but the response has been very weak, with many families still in their homes refusing to leave.”
Life as a displaced person is hell.
He continued: “The south isn’t better than the north; there’s killing here and there. Life as a displaced person is hell, so we decided to die here.”
The spokesperson for the Civil Defense in northern Gaza, Major Mahmoud Basel, confirmed that “the Israeli occupation army targets everything that moves in Jabalia, as happened with those hungry individuals who went to get flour from a UNRWA distribution center.”
Basel told Daraj: “It is clear that the army intends to implement the generals’ plan and forcibly displace Jabalia’s residents to the southern part of Gaza by targeting civilians.”
