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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://mondoweiss.net/2024/05/why-the-israeli-army-is-invading-northern-gaza-a-second-time/?ml_recipient=121405976713626707&ml_link=121405894225299355&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2024-05-15&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines+RSS+Automation">mondoweiss.net</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Why the Israeli army is invading northern Gaza a second time</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Tareq S. Hajjaj</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time">May 14, 2024<br></div>
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<img src="cid:ii_lw7wqjph0" alt="Screenshot-from-video-of-battles-between-the-Qassam-Brigades-and-the-Israeli-army-in-Jabalia-1536x859.png" width="438" height="245"><br>
<font size="1">Screenshot from video of battles between the Qassam Brigades and the Israeli army in Jabalia. (Photo: Social Media/X)
</font><p>Families carry their belongings and everything they own in small bags
and leave in droves. In the background behind them is thick black
smoke, while the sound of shelling, artillery, and intense gunfire never
stops. What makes this scene different from all the other stages of
this genocidal war is that it is happening in the town of Jabalia and
Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza — the place where Israel had <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2024/01/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-102-israel-pulls-thousands-of-forces-from-gaza-as-hamas-announces-death-of-two-captives/">declared at the start of the year</a> that Hamas’s military presence had been effectively eliminated. </p>
<p>Five months later, the Israeli army is going back in and launching a
large-scale military operation in northern Gaza. It is proceeding in
tandem with the invasion of Rafah to the south. One crime to cover up
another.</p>
<p>The reason for the second invasion of the north has been plastered on
computer and phone screens over the past few days: improbable videos of
fighters from the Qassam Brigades (Hamas’s military wing) launching
complex attacks on Israeli forces, including rocket and mortar attacks,
traps and ambushes of soldiers, and the targeting of tanks. The fact
that it is happening now as Israel has started its invasion of Rafah is
also not a coincidence.</p>
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<p>Resistance factions have been able to regroup and resituate their
fighting from the south to the north. They are thus sending a message to
Israel that they still exist in the north contrary to its claims, and
that a similar invasion of Rafah would also fail to “dismantle” them.</p>
<p>Analysts on Al Jazeera <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51yX-6TGQco">argue</a>
that the resistance is putting pressure on the army by forcing it to
return to northern Gaza and divert some of its forces away from Rafah. <em>Haaretz</em> has also <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-05-14/ty-article-magazine/.premium/in-gazas-jabalya-with-no-day-after-strategy-israeli-soldiers-fight-hamas-again/0000018f-77e6-df8f-a78f-ffff2f2b0000?utm_source=App_Share&utm_medium=iOS_Native">confirmed this</a>,
reporting that several Israeli army brigades that had been slated to be
part of the Rafah operation, such as the 98th Division, is now fighting
in Jabalia.</p>
<p>To that end, the Qassam Brigades have employed a number of diverse
and qualitative offensive tactics and released videos of their
operations. They have <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9EdbjKQ2Dg">used drones</a> for the first time since the end of last November, dropping explosives on top of Merkava tanks. According to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6asqoJve-Pw">an announcement</a>
by the Qassam Brigades on May 12, Hamas fighters targeted several tanks
in the Zeitoun area east of Gaza City and in the Mabhouh area east of
Jabalia, and when soldiers fled the tanks and barricaded themselves in
nearby buildings, the fighters reportedly blew up those houses with the
soldiers inside them. As of the time of writing, the Qassam Brigades
have targeted over ten military vehicles, fired <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erDsYD0zpCU">mortar barrages</a> in the Zeitoun neighborhood, carried out <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEi1y5g0e5c&rco=1">sniper operations</a> in the same area, and launched a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Kh26INlz9A">salvo of rockets</a> from Jabalia that reached Ashkelon.</p>
<p>What’s more, residents in northern Gaza told <em>Mondoweiss</em> that
leaks have spread in northern Gaza indicating that the various
resistance factions in the areas of Jabalia, Jabalia refugee camp, Beit
Lahia, and Beit Hanoun, all north of Gaza City, have united all their
brigades. This would appear to correspond to the analysis that the
resistance is mounting a formidable offensive to disrupt the Rafah
invasion.</p>
<p>Residents in northern Gaza also confirm that the clashes in the area
have been fierce, and that the operations of the resistance in combat
zones have been some of the largest witnessed since the start of the
war.</p>
<p>Other residents told <em>Mondoweiss</em> that the army is facing
difficulty in entering those areas in northern Gaza again, and its
response has been to pursue a strategy of wholesale destruction and
widespread bombing of the area before entering it, as it has since the
start of the war. Some residents told<em> Mondoweiss</em> the invasion was like the “horrors of doomsday.” </p>
<p>All of this is taking place in the north while resistance in the
south has also stepped up the rate of qualitative operations. Just
today, the Qassam Brigades put out <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7OvW3g3mX8">a video</a>
of a complex tunnel ambush involving the use of EFPs and RPG rocket
launchers against soldiers and military vehicles, signaling that the
fighting in Gaza is intensifying on all fronts.</p>
<h2><strong>The first exit will be the last</strong></h2>
<p>As the battle rages on with the resistance, the Israeli army’s
wholesale destruction has followed a similar pattern as previous
invasions — the army surrounds shelters, cuts off communications with
the outside world, and then goes in and <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2024/04/i-felt-like-pulling-my-heart-out-of-the-earth-testimonies-from-the-mass-grave-at-nasser-hospital/">commits massacres</a> and carries out field executions.</p>
<p>On Friday morning, May 10, the Israeli army began sending messages
and phone calls in the areas of Jabalia, Beit Lahia, Jabalia refugee
camp, and the Awda refugee camp. That night, the army surrounded the
school shelters housing the displaced in the Jabalia area and completely
demolished entire residential blocks, including over 20 buildings.
These lands were also razed, according to on-the-ground testimonies
collected by <em>Mondoweiss</em>. Three days later, the Israeli army cut off communications from the Jabalia area. </p>
<blockquote><p>In the coming days and weeks, news might begin to
surface of new atrocities and the unearthing of new mass graves in
northern Gaza.</p></blockquote>
<p>Dozens of people have so far been reported killed in those areas, the
majority of whom have not yet been recovered from the rubble and their
bombed homes. In the coming days and weeks, news might begin to surface
of new atrocities and the unearthing of new mass graves in northern
Gaza.</p>
<p>Although residents in these areas were warned at the beginning of the
war to leave their homes, most refused and remained where they were.</p>
<p>This time is different. After witnessing countless bloody massacres in the north, most infamously the <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2024/04/come-out-you-animals-how-the-massacre-at-al-shifa-hospital-happened/">massacre at al-Shifa Hospital</a> in March, many are now thinking twice about staying put.</p>
<p>Rania Moussa, 36, a mother of four children, remained in Jabalia
refugee camp since the start of the war. She decided early on not to
obey the Israeli army’s orders to leave her neighborhood, defying the
harrowing conditions to which the Jabalia region has been subjected,
including bombings, arrests, demolitions, and extrajudicial killings. </p>
<p>But this time, the massacre at al-Shifa is weighing heavily on
Rania’s mind. She believes that what happened at al-Shifa is already
repeating itself in Jabalia, which is why she and her family decided to
leave and go to Gaza City when the army first gave the evacuation
order. </p>
<p>Then she found out that the army had also invaded al-Zeitoun east of Gaza City. </p>
<p>“We did not know that the occupation would return to Jabalia camp after all these months,” she told <em>Mondoweiss</em>.
“We’ve been experiencing shelling and artillery on a daily basis since
the start, but now everything is different. The presence of the army up
close and next to us is different.” </p>
<blockquote><p>“I do not want my children to be buried and cut up and left out in the open for dogs to maul them.”</p><cite>Rania Moussa</cite></blockquote>
<p>When the army is that close to the civilian population, Rania said, “killing becomes easier than drinking water for soldiers.” </p>
<p>“What happened at al-Shifa made us flee our homes for fear that we
would be one of the victims buried in the sand and garbage, and with
time, no one would recognize us,” Rania explained. “I do not want my
children to be buried and cut up and left out in the open for dogs to
maul them. I did not want this for my family, so I fled to the al-Rimal
neighborhood in Gaza City.”</p>
<p>Not everyone is leaving, however, even as residents tell <em>Mondoweiss</em>
that the second invasion of northern Gaza appears to be more violent
and destructive than the last. They expect that this time the scale of
the destruction will be total and will not leave a single building
standing, but some are still insisting on remaining — because the first
exit from the north will be the last, and there will be no return.</p>
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