'Grim pattern' of Israeli operations in Gaza's north leaves it uninhabitable

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Israeli air strikes and ground operations continued to cause destruction in Gaza's north on Wednesday, even as a ceasefire with Hamas appeared to be imminent.

At least 38 people were killed by Israeli fire across the Palestinian enclave on Tuesday and Wednesday, the civil defence said. A strike on a home near Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia killed 10 people sheltering there. As the hospital was treating the injured, Israeli bombs sparked a fire in the intensive care unit.

“We could hear gunfire and shelling without being able to intervene,” Dr Hossam Abu Safiya, director of the hospital, told The National. “It became evident that there was movement towards the hospital, and we anticipated an incursion.”

He said tanks and gunfire deliberately targeted the ICU, but patients, including many on ventilators, were evacuated.

“The ICU at Kamal Adwan hospital is the only remaining unit of its kind in northern Gaza. Losing it would plunge us into an even more dangerous and catastrophic situation than before,” Dr Abu Safiya added.

Staff attempted to extinguish the fire with basic tools but, as the water supply to the hospital had been cut off for eight days by Israeli strikes on tanks and pipelines, the battle to contain the blaze took hours.

The hospital complex has come under repeated attack since the Gaza war began in October 2023. The war was sparked by a Hamas-led incursion that killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and took more than 200 hostage into Gaza. The hospital has been raided by Israeli troops on multiple occasions and medical teams forced to leave. Much of its infrastructure, including oxygen lines, no longer works as staff battle to keep patients alive in dire conditions.

The World Health Organisation said it had been unable to send staff and supplies to Kamal Adwan and called for attacks on Gaza to stop.

"An international medical team urgently needed for Kamal Adwan hospital has not been permitted to deploy," WHO regional director Hanan Balkhy said on X. "The fear endured by the hospital’s staff and patients in recent days is indescribable - and unacceptable."

After the bombs came bulldozers, in what Qais Al Balawi, 29, called a "grim pattern" of Israeli action in the north, which it has been isolating for months.

Mr Al Balawi has been sheltering in a house near Kamal Adwan hospital, moving only when needed to avoid bombardment.

"During the day, there are intense air strikes, shelling, and heavy gunfire, including drone attacks," he told The National. "At night, Israeli machinery advances deep into towns and Jabalia camp, planting explosive barrels and booby-trapped robots before retreating. Hours later, these explosives are detonated, transforming the area into lifeless rubble within moments.

“On some days, the machinery returns to the areas it destroyed and conducts extensive excavation and levelling operations. Many houses have not only been destroyed but also bulldozed into oblivion. Even if their owners manage to return someday, they wouldn’t recognise where their homes once stood.”

He added that the area has turned into a ghost town. “Of the few thousand who remain, everyone understands their likely fate: death or arrest. It is clear that the army is intent on erasing all traces of life in northern Gaza.”

Israel's dedication to its operation in northern Gaza, despite all parties to the conflict saying a ceasefire could be close in recent days, has sparked fears that Israel could be looking to settle its citizens there, to maintain control over the area after a ceasefire deal is struck.

Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that Israel will have security control over Gaza with "full freedom of action" after the defeat of Hamas, comparing a possible Gaza security arrangement to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, where the country’s forces severely limit the movement and economic activity of Palestinian residents and regularly launch deadly raids.

Although the details of what a long-term Israeli military plan for Gaza might look like are unclear, forces have been building the 18-square-mile Netzarim Corridor, which cuts Gaza practically in half, since the early days of the conflict. The corridor has military bases, checkpoints and other infrastructure to support a long-term presence and a synagogue.

A potential blueprint came in the form of a proposal known as “the general’s plan” that was presented to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in September.

The plan proposes intensifying the siege on northern Gaza and sealing it off from the already limited aid distribution operation as a means to force out the remaining Palestinian population and pave the way for a closed military area run by the Israeli army. The Israeli military consistently denies weaponising aid and using starvation as a weapon of war.

Long-term occupation of Gaza remains controversial within Israel, with critics saying it would be a major drain on the country’s resources and deepen anger against Israel on the international stage.

For those forced out of their homes in the north, actions speak louder than words. Adeeb Al Masri, a 35-year-old displaced resident from Tel Al Zaatar, originally from Beit Hanoun, said: "The systematic destruction in northern Gaza, whether in Jabalia or Beit Lahia, can only be interpreted in one way: the Israeli army does not want life to exist in this area.

“In previous incursions, the army would enter the targeted area, carry out a military operation, and while many homes and infrastructure were destroyed, some houses, schools and facilities would remain intact," the father of five said.

"But in this incursion, nothing is left standing, and the reality is beyond description.

“Houses are piled on top of each other in the streets, which are completely blocked by rubble. For those of us who lived in these areas, seeing them reduced to this state is unbearable.”