Sameera Casmod | sameerac@radioislam.co.za
28 October 2024 | 12:47 CAT
3-minute read

Harrowing accounts of Israel’s intensified aggression in northern Gaza have emerged over the last few weeks, with the United Nations having reported high civilian death tolls amidst severe infrastructural devastation and strained food, fuel, and humanitarian aid supplies.

The breakdown of civil defence, paramedic and medical services means that many victims are trapped beneath the debris. The healthcare system has largely collapsed due to the lack of supplies, and reports have emerged of families who have been separated or detained amid Israel’s escalating onslaught.

While the intensified military onslaught focused mainly on Gaza’s northern city of Jabalia, Israelis have expanded their occupation operations to include Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun.

What started in the first week of October this year with Israel imposing a total siege on the northern part of the enclave has evolved into occupation forces meting out acts of depraved torment and terror on the area’s inhabitants.

“I want to highlight, in particular, Holocaust-like scenes of people who have been rounded up, with very little on their bodies, have been undressed, particularly the males, and then frog-marched into certain areas, and many of them have disappeared after that,” Moulana Ebrahim Moosa said during Radio Islam’s Palestine Report.

Reports indicate that Israeli forces have surrounded and shelled the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza. Israeli tanks encircled the hospital, blocking exits and targeting the second and third floors with artillery. This assault led to power outages, increased fear among the hospital’s occupants, and serious risks for both patients and medical staff, especially as oxygen supplies were depleted, endangering critical care patients.

Israeli bulldozers have been observed excavating deep trenches around the facility, after which Israeli soldiers placed bound and blindfolded male Palestinian civilians into the hole.

Distressing reports have revealed the forced removal of thousands of Palestinian refugees seeking shelter at schools in the area. Israeli occupation forces abducted male refugees, removing them to unknown locations to be “investigated”.

Women and children were reportedly placed in different groups, and Israeli soldiers assassinated any woman who attempted to reach her child.

“Mothers had seen their children lying on the ground and screamed without being able to reach them, and if any of the mothers attempted to move towards their children, they were shot directly by the soldiers, or by this very terrifying drone, which is called the quadcopter, which has been increasingly used throughout Gaza,” Moulana Moosa said.

The IOF then forced the displaced refugees into prepared trenches, after which they circled the victims with tanks, creating huge plumes of dust. Believing they had reached the end, the Gazan victims collectively recited shahadah, but the IOF suddenly changed tack and interrogated them after giving the order to climb out one by one. The Gazans were ordered to evacuate the area and move south.

“Women were forced to pick up children who were not their own, at the army’s orders, and forced to march on, leaving their own children behind… An absolutely terrifying situation with mothers searching for their children in the arms of other women and trying to calm the children they held until they found their real mothers,” Moulana Moosa said.

Resistance efforts have doubled in Gaza, particularly in the northern area of the enclave, with more than 100 completed operations having been reported, including various attacks on Israeli military vehicles by the Al Qassam Brigades.

Israeli sources indicate that 23 soldiers have been killed in the past week, taking the total number of soldiers killed since the beginning of the month to 80. This excludes the number of those who have been neutralised by Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Outside an Israeli military intelligence base at Gilot, north of Tel Aviv, 40 people were injured in what is described as a “ramming attack”, in which a Palestinian driver allegedly drove a truck into a bus. Details of the attack are scant at present, but it appears that one Israeli passenger died, and 35 others were wounded.

Meanwhile, South Africa is set to file its memorial in its case of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) today. The memorial, which is essentially a written document that summarises the important information about the case, will present the facts to the ICJ.

“The memorial is South Africa’s foundational legal statement for the case, which will guide the proceedings and provide a base for the decisions that are going to be made,” Moulana Moosa explained, adding that Minister Ronald Lamola from the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) has stated that the memorial serves to provide forensic evidence that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Israel has until 28 July 2025 to file a counter-memorial. Oral arguments will take place only after these memorials are filed, which indicates that it will be a long time before the court rules on the case.

Listen to the Palestine Report on Sabaahul Muslim with Moulana Sulaimaan Ravat.