After 100 days, at least 5,000 in north Gaza are dead or missing

At least five thousand people were killed or are missing, and 9,500 others injured after 100 days of the Israeli military assault on northern Gaza Strip, according to what the government media office announced in a statement on 12 January.

“During these 100 days, our Palestinian people in the northern Gaza Strip experienced the most horrific images of killing, ethnic cleansing, destruction and displacement,” the statement added.

On 5 October, the Israeli army invaded the northern Gaza Strip, under the pretext of preventing Hamas from reconstituting its strength in the area, while Palestinians believe that Israel is working to occupy the area to turn it into a buffer zone between Israel and Gaza.

Journalist Ahmed Mansour, a resident of the northern Gaza Strip, told The New Arab, “Northern Gaza has turned into a disaster area due to the massive destruction and rubble left behind by the attacks, while the Israeli army continues to impose a tight siege on families who have chosen to remain in their homes, refusing to leave.”

Mansour added that the Israeli targeting has impacted every place, from schools and hospitals to shelters and evacuation centres, stressing that this systematic bombing has left no room for escape or safety.

Israel continues to commit massacres despite two arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court on 21 November against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Galant for committing war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza.

‘Death lives among us’

“It’s as if death lives among us, never leaving us,” said Mohammed Suleiman, 29, a resident of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, as he began to describe the suffering he and his family endured during the 100 days of Israel’s military attacks.

Suleiman, a father of three, lost his younger brother Mahmoud, 19, when the Israeli forces targeted a house next to theirs last December.

“We were sitting together having a simple meal of bread and tea, and suddenly the ground shook around us. The neighbouring house collapsed, and the rubble was scattered over Mahmoud. We tried to save him, but we only found his lifeless body,” Suleiman told TNA.

Mahmoud’s death was not the only catastrophe that befell Suleiman’s family—the aggression completely destroyed their home, and forced them to flee to a school crowded with displaced people.

“We live in a small room with five other families. There is no clean water, and not enough food for the children. We feel that the world has forgotten our suffering,” Suleiman said.

He also points out that life has become impossible in the northern Gaza Strip, “Everything here is destroyed, hospitals are full of wounded and cannot receive more, schools have been turned into shelters, and the roads are full of holes resulting from the bombing. We are now just trying to survive, but for how long?”

A daily horror

Amid the sounds of continuous shelling in the northern Gaza Strip, Samar Shaheen, 35 years old, a mother of five children, was living terrifying daily details in which she tried to secure the basics of life for her family living in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip.

But at the end of last November, her eldest child, Sami, who was 12 years old, was killed when he went to fill water from a nearby station.

“Sami always helped me. When the water was cut off, he asked me to go fill gallons from the nearby station. I was afraid for him, but we needed water,” Sami’s mother told TNA.

“I did not imagine that this would be the last time I would see him. Suddenly, I heard the sound of a nearby explosion, and when I rushed to the place, I saw children and women screaming, and I saw Sami’s body lying on the ground,” she added.

When asked how she felt about the 5,000 Palestinian killed in 100 days, she remarked, “This is not just a number; it is 5,000 stories, 5,000 families who lost their loved ones, 5,000 mothers like me who live in pain every day. Every martyr is a life that has stopped, and hopes that have been buried under the rubble.”

“I lost Sami, and he will not return. But I do not want another mother to lose her child like me. I hope the world hears us, sees our tears, and stops this nightmare we are living. We are human beings, we want to live, just to live,” Sami’s mother concluded. 

Targeting health facilities

During the Israeli military operation in northern Gaza, the Israeli army burned down Kamal Adwan Hospital, the most important health facility there, on 27 December 2024. The fate of its detained director, Hussam Abu Safiyeh, remains unknown.

In the midst of tragic circumstances experienced by nurse Shorouk al-Rantisi at Kamal Adwan Hospital, she recalled the moments of the army’s storming, which she described as “the most difficult thing I have ever experienced in my entire life.”

Al-Rantisi witnessed warplanes targeting the archives and laboratory building, causing a fire to break out and burn a large part of the hospital.

She told TNA, “We didn’t have time to think. The sounds of explosions filled the place, and the fire was devouring the departments before our eyes. We tried to maintain our calm to support the patients, but the bombing left no room for safety.”

“The Israeli tanks came right after the bombing, and they asked Dr Abu Safiya to come out. There were about 400 people with us, including patients, the injured, and children, all of them hungry and afraid. The soldiers started forcing the sick and injured to come out, even those who could barely move. I saw patients dragging the IVs with their hands, while they were being beaten and screamed at to make them hurry up,” she continued.

“The children and women were in shock. The soldiers asked us to take off our veils, and when we refused, they started pulling our hair over the veil to humiliate us. Even the women who were carrying their children were not exempt from the humiliation,” she added.

Regarding the reason behind burning the hospital and closing it, Al-Rantisi points out that the Israeli army aims to paralyse the medical sector in northern Gaza. “The hospital served thousands of patients and the injured. Closing it was just a way to increase the suffering and prevent us from providing assistance to the wounded who were dying before our eyes,” she said.

‘Not the whole truth’

For his part, Ismail al-Thawabtah, Director General of the Government Media Office in Gaza, told TNA the killing and disappearance of 5,000 Palestinians in 100 days “does not represent the whole truth”, meaning that the numbers are very conservative.

He explained that the dead and missing are those who were documented by official bodies, “but there are other numbers of martyrs who are still lying on the roads and under the rubble, and rescue and civil defence teams have not been able to reach them due to the intensity of the bombing, lack of capabilities, and lack of security in the targeted areas.”

Al-Thawabtah further noted that the killing of at least 5,000 in this period of time means an unprecedented daily tragedy. “This number means that more than 50 Palestinians are killed every day, including children, women, and the elderly. It is a rate that indicates a deliberate and systematic genocide practised by the occupation forces,” he stressed. 

On the impact of these massacres, Thabet added, “What is happening in the northern Gaza Strip is a total destruction of life in all its forms. The population has become homeless, and residential neighbourhoods have been turned into ruins. There are entire families that have been erased from the civil registry. This is not ordinary aggression; it is ethnic cleansing of an entire people.”

Despite the genocide and destruction that has reduced northern Gaza to rubble, Palestinians still cling to a thread of hope for a ceasefire, amid fear that any delay will mean continued death by Israel.