As desperate Palestinians in the south crowd into ever-decreasing territory and the UN warns that the relief operation is deteriorating, Israeli troops are holding back Palestinians in northern Gaza.
The first footage of the mass detentions emerged on Thursday in the northern town of Beit Lahiya. They show dozens of men kneeling or sitting in the streets, stripped to their underwear, with their hands tied behind their backs. UN observers said Israeli troops were reportedly holding men and boys as young as 15 in a school turned into a shelter.
Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy said Friday that the detainees were “military-aged men who were discovered in areas that civilians were supposed to have evacuated weeks ago.”
Some 200 people have been detained in the past 48 hours and dozens have been taken to Israel for questioning, including Hamas commanders, according to Military Spokesman Daniel Hagari. More over, the London-based news outlet Al-Araby al-Jadeed, or The New Arab, reported that one of the men pictured in the detainees’ photos was Diaa al-Kahlout, its Gaza correspondent, and that he was captured along with other civilians.
Secretary-General Guterres told the council that Gaza was at a “tipping point” and “there is a high risk of a complete collapse of the humanitarian support system,” at the same time the United States vetoed the UN resolution
In addition, a week ago, Israel expanded its ground offensive into central and southern Gaza, where nearly the territory’s entire population of 2.3 million Palestinians has congregated, many of them now cut off from humanitarian supplies. The Israeli assault destroyed much of Gaza City and surrounding areas in the north. Tens of thousands of residents are believed to remain there, although the UN says it cannot confirm exact numbers.
Meanwhile, heavy fighting has been going on for days in the Jabaliya refugee camp and the Shujaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City. The UN reported that Al Awda Hospital in Jabaliya, one of two hospitals still operating in the north, was surrounded by Israeli troops and damaged by Israeli shelling.
Battlefield officials say they are doing their best to spare civilians, however, and accuse Hamas of using them as human shields because the militants are fighting in dense residential neighbourhoods.
