At least 73 people were killed in a devastating Israeli attack on the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday, according to Palestinian sources. The Israeli army described the number of casualties as “exaggerated.”
The target of the bombing was a multi-storey building, but other houses were hit, said the government in the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by the radical Islamist Hamas. While speaking of a “horrendous massacre in Beit Lahiya,” the Israeli military emphasized that the information did not match the level of intelligence available to the Israeli military. But we will continue to check the reports.
According to residents and doctors, the Israeli army had recently stepped up its siege of the Jabalia refugee camp, with civilians from the nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya ordered to evacuate. The military said the aim was to separate civilians and Hamas fighters. Allegations that the actions were aimed at displacing people were denied.
Since the military campaign to overthrow Hamas began a year ago, Israel has repeatedly been accused of seeking ethnic cleansing from the Gaza Strip. Although this is officially denied, leading government politicians have spoken along these lines. In August, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich deplored, among other things, the existence of food aid for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and claimed that starving the population there would be morally justified.
Minister dreams of ‘Greater Israel’
Smotrich himself had denied the existence of the Palestinian people in the past. Earlier this year, he told a meeting in Paris: “There is no such thing as Palestinians, because there is no such thing as a Palestinian people,” presenting a ‘Greater Israel’ map that also included the West Bank and Jordan.
Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir sees the same thing and calls for the repopulation of the Gaza Strip. “The relocation of hundreds of thousands of Gaza residents” would allow Israeli residents of the Gaza Strip to “return home and live in safety,” the security minister of the far-right party Otzma Yehudit argued earlier this year.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
