The city of Beit Lahiya has been declared a disaster area as the Israeli military batters northern Gaza with air strikes.
The municipality made the declaration on Wednesday after an overnight attack that reportedly killed eight people. The strikes extended an Israeli onslaught that has killed about 350 people in the north of the enclave in the past seven days, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
“We declare that the city is a disaster area due to the Israeli war of extermination and siege, and it has no food, water, hospitals, doctors, services, or communications,” the Beit Lahiya municipality said in a statement.
Officials demanded the opening of safe corridors to bring medical supplies, food, fuel and civil defence equipment into northern Gaza.
The area has been under relentless assault since Israel launched military operations focused in and around the Jabaliya refugee camp in early October.
A population on its knees
The operation has exacerbated an already dire humanitarian crisis in the area.
Thousands of displaced people are seeking shelter while they lack food, water and other essential resources. Medical care is also virtually absent as health facilities are no longer operational.
A spokesperson for the Palestine Red Crescent Society in Gaza called the situation “catastrophic”. Oxfam has said it is unable to reach people in the north of the enclave and accused the army of using starvation as a weapon.
“This is why the municipality in Beit Lahiya has declared that the northern part of the strip is a disaster area, which means there’s nothing to sustain life there,” reported Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud from Deir el-Balah in Gaza.
Sam Rose, senior Gaza deputy director of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, called conditions in northern Gaza “absolutely desperate”
“It’s horrific, incident after incident being meted out to a population which is on its knees,” he declared.
‘Mass casualty incidents’
The siege in northern Gaza has killed about 800 people so far, Gaza’s Ministry of Health has said.
One of the most devastating attacks came overnight on Monday, when at least 93 people were killed in Beit Lahiya as a strike flattened a residential building. Widespread international condemnation has followed.
Tor Wennesland, UN envoy for the Middle East Peace Process, called it “yet another in a deadly series of recent mass casualty incidents … that raises serious concerns about violations of international humanitarian law”.
The official demanded that “this endless spiral of death and destruction must end immediately”.
The United States called the attack “horrifying” although Washington continues to supply billions of dollars worth of military aid to Israel.
The Israeli military has said it is investigating, but did not comment on Tuesday’s overnight attack.
OCHA stated that at least 347 people were killed in reported “mass casualty incidents” in Gaza between October 24 and October 29, with many more missing, suspected to be trapped under rubble.
