“Jabalia”…human suffering in peace and massacres in war
Yesterday, Tuesday, the Gaza Strip witnessed a new massacre that left at least 400 people dead and wounded, as a result of Israeli forces targeting the Jabalia camp in the northern Gaza Strip.
Israel annihilated an entire neighborhood in the middle of the camp, turning it into corpses and rubble. The Palestinian Ministry of Interior in Gaza said that the largest number of victims were children and women.
What do we know about Jabalia camp? Why did Israel target him?
Jabalia camp is the largest of the eight refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, and is located near a village of the same name. It was established by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in 1948.
UNRWA indicates, on its official website, that Palestinian refugees settled in the camp after the 1948 war, and that the majority of them had fled from villages located in southern Palestine.
The camp includes about 116,000 refugees who live in a land area of only 1.4 square kilometers, and is therefore considered one of the most densely populated areas in the world.
There are 32 UNRWA facilities in the camp, 16 schools, one food distribution center, 3 health centers, 7 water wells, and two relief and social services offices.
For years, the camp has been suffering from several major problems, including constant power outages, polluted water supplies, high population density, and a worsening unemployment crisis.
UNRWA says, “The Israeli siege on Gaza in 2007 made life in Jabalia camp more difficult. Unemployment rates rose significantly, and most families were no longer able to support themselves. Those who were initially able to support themselves have recently become dependent on the food and cash assistance that we provide to them to meet their basic food needs.”
She added: “Moreover, 90 percent of the water in the camp is unfit for human consumption.”
The great importance of Jabalia camp is due to the fact that it was the starting center of the first Palestinian intifada, the “Intifada of Stones,” which broke out in late 1987.
Jabalia is also the closest camp to the Erez Crossing, the only outlet for Gaza residents to Israel.
The camp was famous for being one of the centers of Palestinian resistance, and rockets were repeatedly launched from it towards the settlements adjacent to the Gaza Strip, thus constituting a source of anxiety for Israel.
Previous massacres
The camp was subjected to a number of massacres and bombings, the most famous of which was the massacre that occurred in 2004, and was known as “Operation Days of Regret.”
This operation lasted 17 days, and involved 100 Israeli tanks and dozens of aircraft. Israel said that its goal was “to try to prevent the launching of rockets from the northern Gaza Strip at the nearby Israeli settlement of Sderot.”
An UNRWA report confirmed that the operation resulted in the death of more than 100 Palestinians, the displacement of more than 600 others, in addition to material losses exceeding 3 million dollars.
In 2005, Israel targeted a military parade organized by Hamas in the Jabalia camp with 4 missiles, killing at least 19 people and wounding about 80 others.
In 2014, Israel bombed a school run by UNRWA in the camp, killing 16 people.
On October 9, Israeli forces bombed Al-Ternis Market, in Jabalia Camp, with heavy bombs, killing 50 people, most of them children.
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2023-11-01 10:54:33
