Beit Lahiya declared disaster area amid relentless Israeli attacks
As reported earlier by our colleague on the ground in Gaza, the humanitarian situation in the north has become unbearable for its residents due to Israeli forces’ relentless attacks.
Now, the Municipality of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza has announced the town a disaster area.
“We declare that the city is a disaster area due to the Israeli war of extermination and siege, and it has no food, water, hospitals, doctors, services, or communications,” it said.
The Strip’s officials demanded the opening of safe corridors to bring medical supplies, food, fuel and civil defence equipment.
People sit next to the body of a relative as they look at the rubble of their building after an Israeli strike in Beit Lahiya [AFP]
‘Everything in Beit Lahiya is being wiped out’
Reporting from Deir el-Balah, central Gaza Strip
Everything is being wiped out in Beit Lahiya: shelters, schools, hospitals, residential houses.
The past couple of days had the most horrific air raids in residential areas.
Residents in Beit Lahiya had opened their houses to all civilians fleeing from Jabalia, where the Israeli army had been focusing its military operations at the start of the siege three weeks ago. So now Israel forces are concentrating all their attack on Beit Lahiya.
Videos shared online show that no civil defence team, no ambulance have been allowed to access and rescue the wounded in Beit Lahiya, this means many people are still trapped under the rubble.
We are talking about a siege for the past three weeks, meaning no water, no food or aid.
People now forced to drink dirty water.
Gaza’s north in catastrophe as ambulances blocked: Red Crescent
Raed al-Nems, spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza, says the situation in the north of the Strip is “catastrophic” as ambulances are not allowed to reach those injured.
“The priority is to stop the aggression in North Gaza and allow ambulance teams to enter,” al-Nems said, adding that the death toll is rising due to the inability to assist the injured.
The Israeli army is preventing aid from reaching for the 25th consecutive day, he said, adding that the military is deliberately setting fire to refugee shelters in the area.
The Israeli army has laid siege to northern Gaza since early October, bombing the area with renewed intensity and exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis.
Oxfam said it was unable to reach people in the north because of Israel’s ongoing bombing campaign, accusing the army of using starvation as a weapon in its military offensive against the Palestinians. Israel’s strikes on the towns of Jabalia, Beit Hanoon and Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza have killed about 800 during the ongoing siege, the Ministry of Health in Gaza said.
In less than a week between October 24 and 29, the UN recorded seven “mass casualty incidents”.
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