The Israeli military has almost completely destroyed the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, once one of the most densely populated places on earth, turning it into a “ghost town,” Haaretz reported on Sunday.
First established in 1948 as a refuge for Palestinians driven from their homes by Zionist militias during the establishment of the modern state of Israel, the Jabalia refugee camp has been under a total siege since early October as part of a new ethnic cleansing campaign to move all Palestinians in northern Gaza to the south.
The IDF estimates that it has completely destroyed 70% of the buildings in the camp, and the ones that remain are damaged. “During a brief visit to the camp Friday afternoon, I could see that even the few buildings that are still standing were badly damaged,” wrote Haaretz reporter Amos Harel.
According to IDF data, the Israeli military has forcibly driven 96,000 Palestinian civilians out of the Jabalia refugee camp. The IDF also says it killed 2,000 Palestinians during the operation, claiming most were armed, but there is a significant amount of evidence that the IDF kills unarmed civilians and counts them as “terrorists.” The IDF says 35 Israeli soldiers have been killed in fighting in the camp since early October.
The Haaretz report says only 100 “terrorists” and a similar number of civilians remain in the camp. “Jabalia has become a ghost town. Outside, you mainly see pack after pack of stray dogs roaming around and hunting for scraps of food,” the report reads.
The ethnic cleansing campaign, which is based on an outline known as the “general’s plan,” has been focused on Jabalia, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahia. In each city, the IDF is demolishing every building in sight to ensure Palestinian civilians have nowhere to return, and the campaign will likely lead to the establishment of Jewish settlements and permanent Israeli occupation.