Above photo: Bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks on Jabalia refugee camp are brought to al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, October 23, 2024. Hadi Daoud/APA Images.
The ongoing extermination campaign in northern Gaza is displacing Palestinians from shelters as dozens of residents have been abducted by the Israeli army.
Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes hit Beirut’s southern Dahiya district.
Casualties
- 42,847 + killed* and at least 100,544 wounded in the Gaza Strip, including 59% women, children and elderly, as of October 21, 2024.*
- 760+ Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. This includes at least 146 children.**
- 2,574 Lebanese killed and more than 12,001 wounded by Israeli forces since October 8, 2023***
- Israel revised its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,189.
- The Israeli army recognizes the death of 748 Israeli soldiers and the injury of at least 4,969 others since October 7.****
* Gaza’s branch of the Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed this figure in its daily report, published through its WhatsApp channel on October 24, 2024. Rights groups and public health experts estimate the death toll to be much higher.
** The death toll in the West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. This is the latest figure according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health as of October 22, 2024.
*** This figure was released by the Lebanese Health Ministry, updated on October 24, 2024. The counting is based on the Lebanese official date for the beginning of “the Israeli aggression on Lebanon,” when Israel began airstrikes on Lebanese territory after the beginning of Hezbollah’s “support front” for Gaza.
**** These figures are released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.” Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot reported on August 4, 2024, that some 10,000 Israeli soldiers and officers have been either killed or wounded since October 7. The head of the Israeli army’s wounded association told Israel’s Channel 12 that the number of wounded Israeli soldiers exceeds 20,000, including at least 8,000 who have been permanently handicapped as of June 1. Israel’s Channel 7 reported that according to the Israeli war ministry’s rehabilitation service numbers, 8,663 new wounded joined the army’s handicap rehabilitation system since October 7 and as of June 18.
Key Developments
- Israeli army forces hundreds of Palestinians to leave shelters in Jabalia and Beit Lahia, arrests dozens of men. Israeli army releases footage of Palestinians forced to walk out of destroyed areas in Jabalia and of detained Palestinians transferred in military trucks.
- Local sources say only a small part of forcibly displaced Palestinians have left northern Gaza, and that most of them went to other parts of the north.
- Palestinian medical sources in Gaza say that Israel’s offensive on north Gaza has killed 820 Palestinians in 20 days.
- Palestinian Civil Defense says all its operations in northern Gaza have stopped.
- Israeli forces open fire at water tanks at the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia.
- Survivors say Israeli soldiers set buildings on fire after forcing Palestinians to leave homes and shelters in Beit Lahia.
- Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia says that the Israeli army detained most of the hospital’s surgeons.
- Netanyahu’s office announces that Mossad head will leave for Doha to meet Qatar’s Prime Minister and head of CIA to discuss a captive exchange deal.
- Hezbollah announces death of presumptive Nasrallah successor and head of Hezbollah Executive Council, Hashem Safiyyudin, three weeks after he was targeted by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut.
- Israel conducts three airstrikes on Beirut’s southern district, bombs several Lebanese towns in the south of Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley.
- Israeli airstrike causes a multi-floor apartment building to collapse in Beirut’s southern district.
- Israel targets and destroys premises of Hezbollah-linked small-credit and savings charity foundation in Beirut.
- Hezbollah increases rocket fire on Israel, launching 50 rockets in 2 minutes on Wednesday, according to Israeli reports; rockets hit two Israeli factories in Haifa and Akka.
- Israeli army admits to death of five soldiers in combat in south Lebanon over past 24 hours.
- Israeli media reveals that 29 Israeli soldiers have been transferred to Israeli hospitals since Wednesday after being wounded in combat in south Lebanon.
- Israel mobilizes 23 firefighting teams to control fires provoked by Hezbollah rockets in Galilee.
- Hezbollah says its fighters have killed 70 Israeli soldiers, wounded 600, and destroyed 29 Israeli tanks in combat in south Lebanon.
- Israeli settlers establish new outpost on lands of Palestinian village of Farkha near Salfit, northern West Bank.
- Israeli settlers kidnap and beat 15-year-old Palestinian teenager in Masafer Yatta in the south Hebron hills. The teenager was taken for treatment to the Yatta public hospital.
- Israeli settlers torch olive trees belonging to Palestinians in the village of Yasuf in northern occupied West Bank.
- Israeli forces kill 11-year-old Palestinian child while opening fire during a raid escorting Israeli settlers to the Joseph Tomb site in Nablus on Tuesday.
Israel Forcibly Transfers Palestinians From Jabalia
The Israeli army forcibly expelled Palestinians in northern Gaza from their shelters, as relayed by eyewitness accounts, news reports, and video footage released by Israeli sources.
On Wednesday, Israel’s Kan satellite channel aired video footage of Israeli military trucks transferring dozens of blindfolded Palestinian detainees. Kan claimed that the Palestinians were arrested “for interrogation.”
The Israeli army also released aerial video footage on Wednesday showing hundreds of Palestinians walking amid the rubble, surrounded by Israeli tanks as they all head in the same direction after being gathered in a destroyed square. The Israeli army reportedly said that it had “evacuated” 20,000 Palestinians from Jabalia.
Despite Israeli claims to have displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians from northern Gaza, local sources dispute these claims. Muhammad Sharif, a resident of Jabalia, told Mondoweiss that “people know that they will not be safer if they leave to the south, because the occupation has already bombed people while leaving on the routes that the occupation army designated as safe, and because they have been bombing people in the so-called safe-zones.”
Israeli army continues attempts to empty northern Gaza
The Israeli army forcibly expelled Palestinians in northern Gaza from their shelters, as relayed by eyewitness accounts, news reports, and video footage released by Israeli sources.
On Wednesday, Israel’s Kan TV channel aired video footage of Israeli military trucks transferring dozens of blindfolded Palestinian detainees. Kan claimed that the Palestinians were arrested “for interrogation.”
The Israeli army also released aerial video footage on Wednesday showing hundreds of Palestinians walking amid the rubble, surrounded by Israeli tanks as they all head in the same direction after being gathered in a destroyed square. The Israeli army reportedly said that it had “evacuated” 20,000 Palestinians from Jabalia.
On Tuesday, video footage circulated online showing Israeli drones airing a recorded voice ordering Palestinians to leave the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia. The drones reportedly also dropped leaflets ordering Palestinians to leave.
Despite Israeli claims to have displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians from northern Gaza, local sources dispute these claims. Muhammad Sharif, a resident of Jabalia, told Mondoweiss that “people know that they will not be safer if they leave to the south, because the occupation has already bombed people while leaving on the routes that the occupation army designated as safe, and because they have been bombing people in the so-called safe-zones.”
Sharif added that “only a small number of those who were forced to leave displacement shelters left northern Gaza. The majority went elsewhere in the same area.”
Destroying homes to render them unlivable
Testimonies by survivors indicate that Israeli troops set fire to displacement shelters after forcing Palestinians to leave, destroying the belongings they left behind. Rabiha Maqid, a survivor who left the Hamad school in eastern Beit Lahia, where she and hundreds of Palestinians took shelter from the bombings, told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that Israeli soldiers ordered displaced Palestinians to leave the school and gave them little time to gather their belongings. Maqid said that she and displaced Palestinians watched soldiers setting fire to the school while they were leaving and that some soldiers took pictures of themselves while doing it.
Local reports also indicate that Israeli forces have demolished buildings and even entire residential blocks by detonation in Jabalia, effectively rendering most of the area uninhabitable.
In January, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported that Israeli soldiers had been setting Palestinian buildings on fire with the approval of their commanders, rendering them unusable. In April, Palestinians who survived Israel’s destruction of the al-Shifa Hospital said that Israeli soldiers had set fire to entire floors in the medical complex. Images from al-Shifa showed that almost the entire medical complex had been burned. The Deputy Director of al-Shifa told the media that “al-Shifa is finished, forever” following the Israeli withdrawal.
The ongoing Israeli operations in northern Gaza are accompanied by massive bombing campaigns on Jabalia and constant quadcopter drone fire, preventing rescue teams from accessing areas that have been bombed. The Palestinian Civil Defense said on Wednesday that three of its rescuers were killed by Israeli fire while trying to evacuate Palestinians and that all of its operations have been halted in all of northern Gaza, leaving the population without any humanitarian services.
Israel’s siege and offensive on northern Gaza have been ongoing for 20 days, as part of what has been described as the implementation of Israel’s “Generals’ Plan,” which aims to forcibly depopulate northern Gaza through deliberate starvation and extermination. Although the Generals’ Plan doesn’t include plans for settler colonization of the area after its ethnic cleansing, far-right Israeli politicians and settler groups have been advocating for settling Gaza since December of last year.
On Monday, Israelis rallied at Kibbutz Be’eri 3 kilometers away from Gaza’s fence demanding to be allowed to settle in the Strip. The rally was attended by several Israeli ministers, according to Israeli media. Reports indicated that some 700 Israeli families at the event had signed up to move to the prospective Israeli settlements in Gaza.
Northern Gaza was home to some 700,000 Palestinians before October 7, 2023. According to estimates, some 200,000 Palestinians continue to live in the area, which includes Jabalia, Beit Lahia, Twam, Sheikh Zayed, and Beit Hanoun.