Aid agencies warn of impending humanitarian disaster in northern Gaza
GAZA and LONDON -- Aid agencies are painting a picture of utter desperation in northern Gaza, with an increased Israeli military push and evacuation orders for large parts of the area, food and water remain scarce, and Palestinians are caught in what Save the Children is calling the "depths of hell."
"In the north [of Gaza], an already starving population has been cut off from food for two weeks while trying to dodge bombs and bullets in a kill zone they cannot leave," Save the Children's Middle East Regional Director Jeremy Stoner said in a statement.
The Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip has been the scene of the most intense fighting, with at least 10 people killed Monday by artillery fire in the vicinity of an aid distribution center there, according to Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry, and several others were wounded in a drone strike on a school.
The Israeli military has not commented on these specific attacks but has said it's engaged in intense fighting in Jabalia. Gaza Civil Defense said there was a "complete siege" of Jabalia. In a statement Monday on its operations in Jabalia, the Israel Defense Forces claimed Hamas is "actively preventing Gazan civilians from heeding the IDF’s calls to move away from the combat zone."
"I don’t know what to do, at any moment we could die. People are starving. I am afraid to stay, and I am also afraid to leave," Haydar, a driver who works for Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement released by the nongovernmental organization.
The Israeli military will not let international journalists into Gaza, but ABC News has been able to reach people in northern Gaza by phone.
"We live in a constant state of terror with the presence of tanks around us. We hear the sounds of shells and gunfire constantly," Umm Ihab Baroud, 42, told ABC News during a phone call from Jabalia's refugee camp.
"Sometimes I hear the screams of some of the injured, but no one can provide first aid or help because of the constant sniping of everything moving inside the area," the mother of five said. "The army knows that the area is populated and has not been fully evacuated, but it prevents anyone from moving and targets anyone who moves."
The IDF issued evacuation orders for northern Gaza on Oct. 6, its spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X, writing: "I remind you that the northern Gaza Strip area is still considered a dangerous combat zone."
It's estimated that there are between 200,000 and 400,000 people who live in the north in an area that's now a military zone.
But despite the desperate conditions, many residents have chosen to stay.
"No one wants to be displaced to the south because the conditions there are very bad, and the experiences of our relatives and friends there confirm this -- suffering and humiliation in the tents," Bilal Al-Helou, 45, from Beit Hanoun in the northeast of Gaza, told ABC News.
"Another thing is that if we leave the northern areas, who will we leave them to? These are our homes and our land, and we want to stay there," Al-Helou said.
Hospitals across the strip, but especially in the north, are struggling to treat patients, inundated by a stream of people injured in the fighting.
"We receive reports and appeals from citizens inside the [Jabalia] camp about the large number of injured [people] lying in the streets, but the ambulance cannot reach them," Ahmed Radhi, a doctor working at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital and Al-Shifa Medical Complex, told ABC News, also claiming: "The Israeli army is targeting anything that moves inside the camp, and it is also targeting ambulances."
Israel has said Hamas terrorists are using civilians as shields and hospitals as cover-ups for their operations.
In response to Israel's evacuation orders, Hamas released a statement Saturday commending the residents who have not left their homes, saying: "We salute our people and our steadfast people in their homes, in the areas of Jabalia Camp, Jabalia Al-Balad, Al-Nazla, Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun and all areas of the North Gaza Governorate, who are facing the brutal Israeli aggression for the eighth consecutive day, and refuse to evacuate their homes despite the crimes and brutality of the occupation."
There has been some speculation in the Israeli and international media that the Israeli military is now enacting the so-called "General's Plan," a proposal drawn up by retired Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland last month. The plan, which circulated on Israeli media, would purportedly empty northern Gaza of its 400,000 residents, warning those who don't leave the "closed military zone" that they could face starvation, as well as military assault.
However, the Israeli military denies it is enacting this plan, with Defence Minister Yoav Gallant telling his American counterpart Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in a phone call on Sunday that "the IDF is not implementing the 'General's Plan' and does not pursue a policy of starvation in the northern Gaza Strip," according to Walla! News.
Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, or COGAT -- the agency responsible for coordinating aid into Gaza -- says it has continued to send aid into northern Gaza.
When asked about the accusations the IDF is implementing the "General's Plan" plan to lay siege to northern Gaza and block all aid, a COGAT official said "we don't plan to do this. It is not true."
"Thirty trucks carrying flour and food from the WFP [World Food Programme] were transferred today [Monday] from the Port of Ashdod through the Erez West crossing as part of the humanitarian aid delivery to the northern Gaza Strip," COGAT told ABC News.
However, the WFP told ABC News in a statement that "food distribution points, as well as kitchens and bakeries in north Gaza, have been forced to shut down due to airstrikes, military ground operations and evacuation orders."
"The north is basically cut off and we're not able to operate there," Antoine Renard, WFP country director for Palestine, told ABC News.
"We depend on canned food aid," Ahmed Ghalya, 19, from Beit Lahia, told ABC News. "We have a small amount, and I am afraid that if this siege continues, we will not be able to get water to drink."
A lack of water is a major concern for all those ABC News spoke to in north Gaza.
"We have little water and food because we did not expect this sudden and frightening siege. As a mother, I do not know what I will do if we run out of food and water. How will we get food?" asked mother-of-five Baroud.
"We have become accustomed to living in famine more than once, but water is the most important thing. We try to use little water but if this fighting continues, we will live a very difficult catastrophe," she said.
ABC News' Jordana Miller contributed to this report.
