Gaza’s largest refugee camp bombed

The humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues to worsen.
Since the outbreak of the ongoing Israel-Palestine crisis in Gaza, a dire humanitarian situation has been unfolding, marked by daily reports of severe attacks.
On Oct. 18, the United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have called for “humanitarian pauses” to deliver lifesaving aid to millions in Gaza. The failure of the council to make its first public intervention in the Israel-Gaza crisis followed the rejection of a Russian-backed draft on Monday evening.
Just one day later, the oldest church in the city, The Greek Orthodox Church of St. Porphyrius, which traditionally served as a sanctuary for both Christians and Muslims during Israel’s periodic wars against Gaza, was sheltering hundreds of people when an Israeli bomb severely damaged one of the four buildings in its compound. The bomb caused its ceiling to collapse and left dozens trapped under slabs of concrete, according to witnesses.
The director of the New York office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Craig Gerard Mokhiber, stepped down from his position on Oct. 28, calling Israel’s military intervention in Gaza a “textbook genocide,” and in his letter of resignation accused the UN of failing to act. Additionally, he stated that the governments of the U.S., U.K. and much of Europe were “complicit of the assault.” They are not only refusing to meet their treaty obligation to ensure respect for the Geneva Conventions but are actively providing support and diplomatic cover for “Israel’s atrocities.”
Recently, the largest refugee camp in Gaza had become the latest victim of an Israeli airstrike. The Jabalya camp, a refugee camp established by the United Nations and hosting more than 100,000 Palestinian refugees, was confirmed to be struck by Israeli airstrikes. IDF international spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht confirmed this in a live CNN interview with host Wolf Blitzer on Nov. 1. Blitzer asked Hecht in the interview, “Can you confirm that it was an Israeli attack that destroyed the big chunk of that Jabalya refugee camp?”
Hecht responded, “Yes, I can.”
Hecht claimed that they were targeting one of Hamas’ senior commanders, although no official reports have been released to substantiate this claim. Following the incident, the United Nations Human Rights Office has said that the attacks on Jabalya, which is Gaza’s largest refugee camp, “could amount to war crimes” given “the high number of civilian casualties and the scale of destruction,” according to a post made on their social media.
The bombing of the camp resulted in hundreds of deaths and injuries. Multiple videos have also emerged from the bombed site, with one video showing the current situation around the camp. The man in the video stated, “This is the image now from Jabalya camp. We’re talking about a big number of martyrs inside the Jabalya camp. They’re trying to find the injured and dead people who are stuck under the rubble.”
On Nov. 2, just one day after the interview with Hecht, the spokesperson for Israeli PM Netanyahu, Tal Heinrich, sparked outrage on social media platforms following a shocking Freudian slip in a CNN interview. “I can tell you, we are not targeting anyone else in Gaza but civilians,” she said before correcting herself.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Israel on Nov. 3 that it is at risk of destroying an eventual possibility for peace unless it acts swiftly to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza for Palestinian civilians as it intensifies its war against Hamas.
“There will be no partners for peace if they’re consumed by humanitarian catastrophe and alienated by any perceived indifference to their plight,” Blinken said. The call for a temporary pause without the release of Israeli hostages by Hamas was quickly rejected by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said Israel would be “going with full steam ahead.”
In the heart of Gaza, a region besieged by relentless bombings and denied the vital aid it so urgently requires, the humanitarian crisis deepens with each passing day. The innocence of children, stolen by the ravages of war, stands as a poignant testament to the tragedy that has befallen this region.