Palestinians who fled Jabalia said bodies were left lying on the streets

Palestinians fleeing an Israeli attack on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza have given shocking accounts of the situation there.

One man told the BBC he saw the streets littered with bodies after he was ordered to leave the shelter by Israeli soldiers, while a woman said some people left their children in fear.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has asked for a temporary agreement so that families who still want to flee can travel safely, while two local hospitals have warned that they are running out of supplies.

Israel’s military said its troops are continuing to fight Hamas militants while allowing civilians to leave safely.

It is reported that more than 400 people have been killed and tens of thousands left homeless since the army said it launched a third attack on the Jabalia area on October 6, claiming to have eliminated the Hamas group there.

This happened when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken flew to Israel to try to revive the stalled diplomatic process of an agreement to stop violence in Gaza and the release of hostages following the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar by Israeli forces last week.

After meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he told reporters that he wanted to “make sure that this is a time of opportunity to move forward”.

Mr. Blinken reiterated the need for Israel to take additional steps to increase and sustain the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

BBC Arabic’s Gaza Today program interviewed several displaced people who recently fled the Jabalia camp and sought refuge in the nearby Rimal area of ​​Gaza City.

A man named Saleh said he “endured a 16-day siege” when he and his family took refuge at the Abu Hussein Primary School for Boys.

The doctors and rescuers said more than 20 people were killed in an Israeli air strike there last week. The Israeli military named on Tuesday 18 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters it said were among the dead.

“The shooting increased and intensified day by day, the Israeli soldiers are moving towards us. Today, we heard the bombing very close… We fear for our lives,” said Saleh.

“We received messages through [Israeli] the quadcopters were urging us to leave, so we started walking under the observation of the Israeli soldiers, who wanted us to go south or west of Gaza… I was with my grandmother, she could not move, like many others. “

Another man, Mohammed al-Danani, said he was at the school and “saw the bodies of the martyrs on the streets” after obeying the order to leave.

Engy Abdel Aal said he was in the Abu Rashid Pond area when quadcopters broadcast orders instructing people to head towards the town of Beit Lahia, north of the camp.

“The situation was incredibly difficult, no one knows where to go. It’s sad and tragic in every way,” he said. “Some people had to flee without their children, they left them at school while escaping with the others.”

The Israeli army announced on Tuesday that the soldiers “continue fighting in the Jabalia area, while allowing the evacuation of civilians from the fighting area”.

“Because of this, thousands of residents have been evacuated. A number of terrorists have been arrested among the civilians,” said the text in X that included it video showing crowds walking through damaged streets.

The military also said the troops “eliminated 10 terrorists who were a threat and were working closely with them” in one strike, without giving details.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Red Crescent has posted a video it says shows an ambulance transporting the bodies of five people, including children, who were killed by bombs in the town of Jabalia on Monday.

Another graphic video recorded on the same day showed paramedic Nevin al-Dawasah trying to help dead and injured men, women and children in a tented camp near Jabalia Preparatory School for Boys.

After fleeing the area on Tuesday, Ms Dawasah told AFP that people were following the order to evacuate in a “sudden” time.

“We had martyrs and wounded and there was no safe way for the ambulances to arrive,” he said.

The Israeli military has yet to comment on the reports.

The head of the UN refugee agency for Palestine (Unrwa), Philippe Lazzarini, said that its workers in northern Gaza reported that they could not get food, water or medical aid.

“The smell of death is everywhere as corpses are left lying on the streets or under the rubble,” he wrote in X. “People are just waiting to die. They feel abandoned, hopeless and alone.

Mr Lazzarini asked for “a quick agreement, or a few hours, so that we can pass safely to families who wish to leave the area and reach safe places”.

A UN spokesman said Israeli authorities continue to reject requests from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to help rescue civilians trapped under the rubble and deliver much-needed supplies to hospitals.

The director of an Indonesian hospital, one of the last remaining hospitals near Jabalia, told BBC Arabic’s Gaza Today program that Israeli soldiers were stationed outside its gates and that there had been gunfire in the area.

“This has created a situation of fear and confusion among patients and medical staff,” said Dr. Marwan al-Sultan. “We are facing a severe shortage of fuel, medical supplies, workers, food and water.”

“Furthermore, continuous power outages force the hospital to rely on alternative power sources that only last eight to ten hours. During the remaining time, the medical staff cannot use the electric generators, which endangers the patients who need oxygen.”

Dr. Sultan also denied reports that a fire broke out at the hospital on Monday, saying that the fire broke out inside a nearby school, near many generators.

The Israeli army said it ensured that hospitals remained operational during the attack.

It also said that more than 230 trucks carrying food, water, medical supplies and shelters had been transferred to northern Gaza via the Erez West crossing since last week, following a two-week period in which the UN said there had been no deliveries.

Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas following the group’s unprecedented attack in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which approximately 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were captured.

More than 42,710 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the health ministry run by Hamas in the area.