The steadfastness of Palestinians in Jabaliya and their refusal to comply with Israeli army evacuation orders have thwarted the implementation of the “Generals’ Plan” to evacuate the northern Gaza Strip, the Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth, cited by the Anadolu news agency, reported on Friday.
The army announced the start of a military offensive in Jabalia on Saturday, followed by a fierce assault on the eastern and western regions of northern Gaza – the most intense since May.
It warned residents in Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia to evacuate southward, while Gaza authorities cautioned residents against following the orders they deemed a “deception and a lie,” said Anadolu.
‘Secondary Combat Zone’
The Israeli newspaper highlighted that “last week, the Gaza Strip was officially designated as a secondary combat zone by the Israeli army, coinciding with the commencement of the ground operation in southern Lebanon.”
“The army left the regular division in charge of the southern command to raid Jabalia for an extended period of more than a few weeks, due to the unusual insistence of the residents on not evacuating southward,” it said.
It pointed out that the army previously conducted two ground assaults against Jabaliya last November and December, marking the current operation the third since the start of the Gaza onslaught on Oct. 7, 2023.
Yedioth Ahronoth said residents’ resilience in Jabalia and their refusal to comply with the army’s requests “thwarts the practical trial of implementing what is known as the Generals’ Plan” to evacuate the population from northern Gaza.
It compared the operation to a smaller, preliminary version of a proposal by retired Major General Giora Eiland in September, who suggested relocating nearly 300,000 remaining residents in northern Gaza, particularly from Gaza City, to the southern part of the territory via inspection at the Netzarim Corridor in the center of Gaza.
“In a week, the entire territory of the northern Gaza Strip will become military territory,” Eiland had reportedly said.
Hospitals Ordered to Evacuate
Earlier this week, Israel ordered the evacuation of three hospitals within 24 hours in the north of the besieged enclave, including Kamal Adwan Hospital, the Indonesian Hospital and Al-Awda Hospital.
The director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, Dr Husam Abu Safiya said in a video that the Israeli army had given medical staff and patients 24 hours to evacuate the hospital completely.
“What we were asked to do by the Israeli occupation I think we will be witnessing a scene that is similar to the one from Al-Shifa Hospital. And this is exactly what the Israeli army said that Kamal Adwan Hospital will be another Al-Shifa Hospital if we don’t evacuate,” Dr Abu Safiya said.
Israel ‘Has Failed’ – Hamas
Meanwhile, Hamas Politburo member, Izzat Al-Rishq, has commended the “patience and perseverance” of Palestinians in Jabalilya.
“What our people and our triumphant resistance are accomplishing today in Jabalia and its camp, through heroic epics of patience, perseverance, and confronting the aggression and the genocidal war … embodies all the features of legendary steadfastness and the valiant resistance of our people throughout the Gaza Strip,” he said in a statement on Friday.
Al-Rishq emphasized that the “choice of our people has been and will remain an eternal one: to stay rooted in the land, to be steadfast, to resist, and to confront the occupation’s aggression, thwarting its plans of displacement and liquidating our national cause for liberation, independence, and return.”
He said Israel “has exercised all forms of terrorism and aggression against the sons of our people in Gaza, the West Bank, and Al-Quds since October 7th of last year, yet it has failed to achieve any of its aggressive objectives.”
Ongoing Genocide
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Tel Aviv is currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians in a war it has been waging on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 42,126 Palestinians have, to date, been killed, and 98,117 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
Famine and Displacement
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.