Qassam Muaddi
Mondoweiss / December 2, 2024
Former Israeli minister Moshe Ya’alon [a non-convicted war criminal himself] said in a TV interview that Israel was committing ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Meanwhile, Israel’s siege on the north continues, further crippling the remaining hospitals and healthcare systems.
The Israeli siege of the north of Gaza continued for the 60th day on Monday, sealing off the cities, towns and refugee camps of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia. Israeli forces shelled Beit Lahia and the west of Jabalia over the weekend, and detonated several residential blocks in Jabalia.
On Saturday the former war minister and former chief of staff of the Israeli army, Likud member Moshe Ya’alon, said in an interview with an Israeli television that Israel was committing ethnic cleansing in Gaza, pointing specifically to Jabalia and the north of Gaza. After widespread criticism from within Israel, Ya’alon later doubled down, saying that he stands by his declarations, adding that he based his conclusions on testimonies of soldiers who have been deployed in Gaza.
Ya’alon is the first Israeli official to admit and criticize Israeli crimes in the Gaza Strip, and the first Israeli official to describe Israeli actions in Gaza as “ethnic cleansing.” The fact that he is a former high-ranking military official who headed both the war ministry and the army staff with extensive connections inside the army, make his statements more significant.
Ya’alon’s statements triggered a wave of hard criticism against him, as the far-right Israeli channel 14 accused him of “harming Israel because of his hatred of Netanyahu,” and of “helping the International Criminal Court” which has issued arrest warrants against Netanyahu and his former war minister Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
The siege on the north of Gaza began in early October, following the plan laid out by Israeli retired general Giora Eiland, aiming at “isolating Hamas” through pushing inhabitants to leave the area. The “General’s Plan” has been coupled with increasing calls by far-right Israeli politicians and settler groups to reintroduce settlement in the north of Gaza, backed by settler ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.
Siege on north Gaza intensifies
Meanwhile, Israel has forced all three hospitals in the north of Gaza to stop functioning, except the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia, which continues to run with two to four medics only after Israeli forces arrested or forcibly evacuated most of the medical staff. The hospital has been subject to Israeli fire on a daily basis throughout the siege, with its director, Dr. Husam Abu Safiyah being injured by Israeli shrapnel in mid-November. Around 90% of the population of the north of Gaza have been forced to evacuate south to Gaza city.
The director general of field hospitals in Gaza, Marwan al-Hams said that Israel is “destroying the health system in Gaza through siege,” pointing out that that field hospitals can offer nothing to patients who arrive with malnutrition, and that many wounded die because of the lack of supplies and medical staff, especially in the north of Gaza. It is estimated that around 70,000 Palestinians remain in Gaza after the two-month-long Israeli ethnic cleansing campaign in the north.
Al-Hams said on Monday that the Israeli siege has forced the Kamal Adwan hospital to “function with the minimum of capacity,” noting that the wounded are transported to the hospital by regular citizens carried on arms, due to the complete lack of rescue teams.
Earlier in November Israel banned the Palestinian Civil Defense from operating in the besieged north, after more than a month of being forced to work without tools and under Israeli strikes and quadcopter fire, pulling survivors and dead bodies from the rubble with bare hands.
Al-Hams said that “whoever is wounded in the north of Gaza will eventually die, either by [Israeli] strikes or from their wounds,” pointing out that “there are no surgical capacities or intensive care units” in the area.
Al-Hams also warned of the spread of further deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the strip due to the spread of winter diseases, like flu and respiratory illnesses, amidst the lack of medicine, as a result of the siege.
Qassam Muaddi is the Palestine Staff Writer for Mondoweiss
