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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
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Stray dogs are eating the dead in the streets of northern Gaza,
emergency services chief says
By Kareem Khadder, Sana Noor Haq and Eyad Kourdi, CNN
Updated:
2:44 PM EDT, Wed October 16, 2024
Source: CNN
Bodies strewn across dusty streets, entire roads destroyed by Israeli
strikes, people starving. This is the picture painted , northern Gaza,
by the emergency services chief in .
“You can see the signs of hunger on the people in northern Gaza,”
Fares Afana, the head of emergency services in northern Gaza, told CNN
by phone on Monday. “Israeli forces are destroying everything that
represents life or signs of life.”
Afana told CNN that he and his colleagues have received the bodies of
Palestinians killed in northern Gaza, with some showing signs of
scavenging by animals, which has stifled efforts to identify the
deceased.
“Stray dogs who are hungry are eating these bodies in the street…
It makes it difficult for us to identify the bodies,” he said.
He shared a photo with CNN showing the remains of a young boy whose
body he said was fed on by stray dogs.
Afana said that there are “thousands of children” and pregnant
women stuck in the besieged area, where the Israeli military has
carried out aerial and ground attacks in three neighborhoods over the
past 12 days.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it is targeting Hamas’ renewed
presence there.
At least 50,000 people have been displaced from the Jabalya area, the
UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported .
The 400,000 who remain in northern Gaza are stalked by hunger and face
thunderous bombardment.
The UN has accused the Israeli military of forcing residents of
northern Gaza to choose between starvation or relocation.
“Civilians are given no choice but to either starve or leave,”
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN’s agency for Palestine
refugees (UNRWA), said in a statement on Monday. “In Gaza, too many
red lines have been crossed. What might constitute war crimes can still
be prevented.”
The Israeli agency that manages the flow of aid into Gaza said that 30
trucks entered the north on Monday, insisting that Israel “is not
preventing the entry of humanitarian aid.”
Afana said that on Monday Israeli forces had fired on hungry residents
searching for food at a warehouse aid center run by UNRWA. “The
situation is getting worse,” he said.
UNRWA said that an artillery attack at its Jabalya food distribution
center on Monday reportedly killed at least 10 people and injured
another 40.
CNN has asked the IDF for comment.
“For the paramedics, it is also very dangerous to reach this area…
as a result of the roads being blown up and direct fire from the
Israeli military on our vehicles,” Afana said.
He said ambulances had been hit by shrapnel from Israeli artillery
shelling near Yemen al-Sa’eed Hospital, in Jabalya, sharing a video
of the aftermath that showed an ambulance with crushed tires and bullet
marks.
“What is happening in northern Gaza is a real genocide,” he added.
“We can’t do our job normally.”
CNN has asked the IDF about Afana’s allegations that emergency
vehicles had been fired on by the Israeli military.
At least 342 Palestinians have been killed in parts of northern Gaza
since the Israeli operations started earlier this month, Gaza’s
Government Media Office reported on Monday, adding that hundreds of
“civilians, children and women” have been injured. On Tuesday, at
least 17 people were killed in northern Gaza, according to Gaza’s
Civil Defense.
‘Now, the camp is nothing but ashes’
Israeli bulldozers in Jabalya have turned swathes of the once-lively
refugee camp into a maze of demolished streets, according to a resident
of the besieged neighborhood.
“The scenes, sounds and smells of the invasion are extremely
violent,” Abdul Karim Al-Zuwaidi, a journalist working for Al Ghad
TV, told CNN in a voice message on Tuesday. The sound of bombardment
rumbled overhead, in one of several voice notes heard by CNN.
“The question is where and how can the people leave?” the
23-year-old Palestinian man added. “The place they remain in, despite
all the destruction, consists of simple tents they set up from the
rubble of their homes. Where will the people go?”
Al-Zuwaidi accused the Israeli military of firing on civilians
attempting to flee the north at the Abu Sharkh roundabout in Jabalya, .
CNN reached out to the IDF for comment .
Before the war, children lined the alleyways of Jabalya refugee camp
and families gathered to celebrate Islamic holidays, including Ramadan,
Al-Zuwaidi recalled.
“Jabalya camp was very beautiful, full of local markets and bustling
with people. It was peaceful and secure,” he added. “Now, the camp
is nothing but ashes.
“We used to sit in the alleyways there, play with the children, and
organize activities and festivals for the kids… These are memories
that can never be relived.”
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