What’s Israel doing in north Gaza now?

Israel has cut off north Gaza for more than a week now, preventing any aid from going in, as it stages major ground and air assaults and has killed dozens in the last few days.

Here’s everything you need to know about what’s happening there right now:

What did Israel do?

Israel’s military launched an assault in Jabalia and has laid siege to northern Gaza since last week, trapping tens of thousands of people without access to food and water.

The Israeli army is separating northern Gaza from Gaza City using military vehicles, drones and sand barriers.

(Al Jazeera)

Why is it doing that?

Israel says its actions in Jabalia are aimed at “stopping Hamas from regrouping”.

It also says it aims to root out armed Palestinian resistance entirely in the north.

What’s happening to the people in north Gaza?

Reports from people in north Gaza say this is one of the most difficult times in a year that has been horrific.

“Many of the casualties are children and women, and they are arriving at the hospital either in pieces or soaked in blood,” Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reported from central Gaza.

According to an Al Jazeera correspondent and Doctors Without Borders, Israeli snipers have been killing people trying to flee – despite having issued evacuation orders.

Some residents have decided to stay, not trusting the Israel-designated “humanitarian safe zones” that it attacked anyway.

Israel’s assaults have killed at least 200 people over the past week in the north, according to Mounir al-Bursh, head of the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.

Tens of thousands of families remain besieged inside the Jabalia camp while the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) says some 400,000 people are trapped in the north.

Medical crews and ambulances are also reportedly being hit.

Palestinian families arrive in Gaza City after evacuating their homes in the Jabalia area on October 6, 2024, after the Israeli army ordered people to evacuate the area north of Gaza [File: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP]

What does Israel want? To occupy Gaza?

Gideon Levy, a columnist with Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, told Al Jazeera the goal of the Israeli government appears to be to ethnically cleanse the north of Gaza by expelling all Palestinians.

“Israel by itself declared that, basically, Hamas as a military force is totally thrashed. So why does it continue? It continues because Israel would like to see the northern part of Gaza empty of all its Palestinian inhabitants,” he added.

Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but kept it under a land, air and sea blockade since 2007.

In the last year of war on the besieged enclave, Israel repeatedly said it does not want to reoccupy Gaza.

Some Israeli officials, however, have pushed for building settlements in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suggested a setup similar to the occupied West Bank: Israeli military control over Gaza while the Palestinian Authority or a local non-Hamas entity handles civil affairs.

Israel’s real goal remains obscure, but the timing of its siege on the north is interesting, according to Levy.

“[U]nder the cover of the war in Lebanon … when the whole world is looking upon Lebanon and [the possible strike by Israel] on Iran… Israel is taking advantage of it and doing those things in Gaza without having any military goals there,” he said.

Would Israel occupying Gaza be legal?

Due to the ongoing siege on Gaza, the UN, Amnesty International and other aid organisations still refer to Gaza as “occupied territory”.

An Israeli attempt to occupy Gaza militarily or physically would violate international law.

Further compounding the violation would be if it takes the same direction it has in the occupied West Bank.

A Palestinian family arrives in Gaza City after evacuating their homes in the Jabalia area [File: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP]

There, illegal Israeli settlements are cropping up everywhere, Palestinians are being deprived of access to their land, the Israeli army is raiding and killing with impunity – as are Israeli settlers – among other violations.

More than 750,000 Israeli settlers are living on Palestinian land taken by force.

International law stipulates that an occupying power must introduce as few changes as possible and not alter the status quo of the territory. An occupying power should also not move its own people into the territory it is occupying.

Additionally, the occupier is required to adhere to regulations such as protecting occupied peoples’ property and allowing the flow of humanitarian aid, which Israel is not doing right now in north Gaza.

(Al Jazeera)