Israel Hits Jabalia Refugees Camp; Public Health Catastrophe Engulfs Gaza

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Israeli airstrikes hit a densely populated refugee camp of Jabalia in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, October 31, 2023, killing dozens and injuring hundreds of Palestinians. Israel claimed the attack also killed a Hamas commander.

Medics in the Indonesian Hospital, located adjacent to the camp, struggled to treat hundreds of injured in the middle of medicine and medical facilities shortages.

Israeli tanks have been acting in Gaza for at least four days following weeks of heavy air bombardment in retaliation for Hamas' attacks on October 7, taking hostages of over 200 people.

An Israel Defense Forces statement said the strike on Jabalia, Gaza's largest refugee camp, had killed Ibrahim Biari, who was claimed to be a ringleader of what IDF called the "murderous terror attack" on October 7.

Palestinian health officials said at least 50 Palestinians were killed in the refugee camp blast and 150 wounded. Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem denied any senior commander there and called the claim an Israeli pretext for killing civilians.

The blast left large craters in a rubble-filled area surrounded by wrecked concrete buildings. Israel has sent repeated warnings to Gaza residents to evacuate northern areas and while many have gone south, many have not. Jabalia refugee camp itself houses families of refugees dating back to 1948, internally displaced by the wars with Israel.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby had no comment on the blast at the refugee camp, saying he had no information yet. The "killing of civilians is not a war aim" of Israel, Kirby said.

The UN and other aid officials said civilians in the besieged Palestinian enclave were engulfed by a public health catastrophe, with hospitals struggling to treat casualties as electricity supplies peter out.

After the attack on Jabalia, dozens of bodies lay shrouded in white, lined up against the side of the nearby Indonesian Hospital, footage obtained by Reuters showed.

Juggling dwindling supplies of medicines, power cuts, and air or artillery strikes that have shaken hospital buildings, surgeons in Gaza have worked night and day trying to save a constant stream of patients.

"We take it an hour at a time because we don't know when we will be receiving patients. Several times we've had to set up surgical spaces in the corridors and even sometimes in the hospital waiting areas," said Dr. Mohammed al-Run.

Meanwhile, the US, Qatar, and Egypt have been working to open the Rafah crossing into Egypt to allow people to come and go. Egyptian authorities would allow 81 Gazans who were severely wounded in the weeks of bombardment to enter Egypt on Wednesday to complete treatment, the Palestinian border authority said.

On the other hand, the UN SG Antonio Guterres appealed again on Tuesday for the protection of civilians caught in the conflict, stressing the need for proportional behavior and precautions by all parties.

Responding to this, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed international calls for a "humanitarian pause" in fighting to enable emergency aid deliveries to civilians suffering from critical shortages of food, medicine, drinking water, and fuel.

REUTERS

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