Palestinian Civilians Forced out of Jabalia Recall Terror by Israeli Army

For three weeks, Muhammed Krayem and his family could barely find anything to eat as they endured a suffocating siege in northern Gaza, where the Israeli army continues what residents call an “ethnic cleansing” of the area.

When one of their neighbours attempted to reach a school in search of canned food, he was shot directly in the leg by the Israeli army and left to bleed for over two hours while soldiers prevented anyone from approaching him.

Krayem, 38, recounts to Middle East Eye a harrowing journey of multiple forced displacements and relentless attacks along the way, which left him and all his family members wounded before they were forced out of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip.

On Monday, Krayem was in the area of the Yemen al-Saeed Hospital when a quadcopter appeared and began telling everyone to head to the southern Gaza Strip.

“We left around 2pm and there were around 18 children with me,” he recalled. “On our way, we tried to cross from Yemen Hospital, but a quadcopter attacked us with a direct bomb.

“A young man saw the bomb being dropped and started shouting, ‘They dropped a bomb!’ so we fled, and then they dropped another one about 10 metres away from us. Four of us were wounded, one around 50 years old shot in the back, and a child about 12 years old hit with shrapnel in his chest.

“Throughout the journey, the quadcopters were firing at us, and shrapnel was everywhere.”

Along the way, Krayem and his neighbours found a medical point in the Abu Hussein School area in Jabalia. They had hoped to treat the wounded there, but they retreated upon seeing the bodies of victims surrounding the site.

“They were lying around on the ground; the medical teams were either not there or unable to even move to evacuate them,” he said.

Krayem said that everyone in the flat was injured, including him, his wife, sister and relatives, while three neighbours – a woman, her daughter and an elderly man – were killed. The two flats above them were completely destroyed, collapsing over the heads of their residents.

“We went to a flat of a relative in the middle of the Beit Lahiya Project area and stayed there. We hadn’t slept for about three days due to the shelling, explosions, booby-trapped robots and the smell of death everywhere. On the morning of 22 October, around 4:30am, they bombed a nearby house; in about 10 minutes, they dropped around six bombs. Around a half an hour later, they bombed the house we were in.”

Beatings and interrogations

Wounded and bleeding, they left the building and ran on foot to Kamal Adwan Hospital.

“We arrived at the hospital, and not an hour passed before the quadcopters came again and played recordings: ‘You are in a dangerous combat zone, and you must head to the Indonesian Hospital area.’ We went there, and along the way, there were countless soldiers,” Krayem recalled.

“We had no food with us, so after we had stayed for hours, a young man went to a nearby school sheltering displaced people looking for a can of beans or chickpeas. They shot him directly in the foot, and he continued to bleed for two hours while they prevented us from helping him.”

‘Among them was a young man with a mental disability, they beat him and insulted him’

– Muhammed Krayem, displaced Palestinian

The Israeli army then called for all “war wounded” to come for security checks. According to Krayem, they detained approximately 80 percent of the men, subjecting them to “beatings and humiliation”.

“Among them was a young man with a mental disability, they beat him and insulted him, saying, ‘Don’t act stupid; you’re all the same here,” he added.

“There was another young man wounded in his foot; they forced him to stand on it and shot two bullets towards him to compel him to stand while he was wounded.”

Krayem was then brought to a nearby mosque where he was interrogated along with dozens of other men.

“A soldier beat me on my back with his weapon’s butt and kicked me while I was already wounded. After that, they told me to carry a white flag and take around 200 people with me to the safe area. But there is no safe area in Gaza.”

‘Torturous journey’

Since 5 October, the Israeli military has launched a devastating offensive against the northern Gaza Strip, systematically bombarding homes and residential blocks while imposing a strict siege on the area.

This attack came after the Israeli army dropped leaflets declaring a “new phase of war” and ordering residents to evacuate northern Gaza and move southward.

Abdullah al-Muqayid stayed in the northern Gaza Strip for 18 days before he was forced out by the Israeli army.

“It was a torturous journey during the suffocating siege. It was like the Day of Judgment. Every metre, there was a shell or a missile [dropped on us],” Muqayid, 38, told MEE.

“I left the Jabalia camp for the Beit Lahiya Project area about a week after the latest assault began. I stayed there near Kamal Adwan Hospital, and on the 17th day, the army surrounded the hospital and began calling on us to move toward the Indonesian Hospital through a checkpoint they had established. They filmed us with cameras, searched us, humiliated us and insulted us, cursing and swearing at us the entire time.”

Like all the adult male residents of northern Gaza, Muqayid was subjected to interrogation at an interrogation centre established by the Israeli army in a residential square.

He said: “They asked why I hadn’t evacuated since the start of the war. They told us, ‘You rejoiced on 7 October; you’re all Hamas.’ They kept on humiliating us and saying, ‘Keep your eyes on the ground, don’t look at me or the soldiers. You’re not allowed to help anyone, even women or children.’ One of the soldiers kicked me three times with his boot.”

‘You will never return to the north’

After an interrogation that lasted until sunset, the Israeli army ordered the residents to evacuate to the southern Gaza Strip. However, reluctant to leave northern Gaza entirely, they moved to the adjacent Gaza City instead.

“One of the phrases the soldiers told us was, ‘Go south; you will never return to the north. The north will be ours, and we will build settlements there,'” he said.

‘There were martyrs and wounded people whom no one could help along the way’

– Muhammed Owais, displaced Jabalia resident

“But we came to Gaza City. Along the way, there was a massive number of soldiers and tanks as far as the eye could see, as if they were invading a country, not merely civilians and unarmed individuals. We saw the bodies of martyrs on the ground, with dogs mauling them.”

Muqayid managed to leave Gaza City, but he had to leave his elderly mother behind.

“She remained in Jabalia; she cannot leave, she cannot walk such a long distance and face the humiliation and insults we faced.”

Muhammed Owais, a resident of al-Faluja in Jabalia, spoke of Israeli military barracks set up in the Sheikh Zayed Towers area, where men are interrogated and tortured by the soldiers.

“On 8 October, two shells hit our home and quadcopters opened fire at us, forcing us to evacuate to the Abu Hussein School area. We left the house hoping to return in two days, taking with us a little food and clothing. But we lived through very difficult days filled with hunger and thirst for about three weeks,” he said. 

“On 14 October, we received news that our five-story house and those of our neighbours were bombed and demolished. One day later, we witnessed a massacre at the Abu Hussein School, so we had to evacuate again to the Kamal Adwan area.”

Like most of northern Gaza’s residents who were forced out of their homes, Owais and his family stayed in a relative’s home in an adjacent area. But the attacks followed them there.

“Yesterday, a quadcopter announced that they would bomb the area and that we should evacuate to the Indonesian Hospital area.

“We moved there, and there were massive numbers of people; they separated women from men, forced the men into the Kuwait school, and ordered the women to head towards Salah al-Din Street, where there was a military checkpoint waiting for them,” he said. 

“The soldiers made us line up; every five men stood in front of a camera, and they filmed us. They called out to whoever they wanted, arresting many people inside the towers. They forced them to take off their clothes and put on white clothes, tying their hands and blindfolding them. By sunset, it was very dark, and we were forced to walk towards Shuja’iyya. There were numerous checkpoints along the way, and the tanks kicked up dust around us.

“We managed to arrive there, but there were martyrs and wounded people whom no one could help along the way.”