Amid escalating tensions with rising death toll, harrowing visuals of starvation spreading in war-torn areas of Gaza have started emerging were stray dogs are feeding on dead bodies, making it difficult to identify them.
Bodies strewn across dusty streets, entire roads destroyed by Israeli strikes, people starving.
Fares Afana, the head of emergency services in the northern part of the war-torn enclave, told CNN that he and his colleagues had received the bodies of Palestinians killed in northern Gaza, with some showing signs of scavenging by animals.
“Stray dogs who are hungry are eating these bodies in the street… It makes it difficult for us to identify the bodies,” he said.
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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.
50,000 people have been displaced
At least 50,000 people have been displaced from the Jabalya area, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported on Sunday. The 400,000 who remain in northern Gaza are stalked by hunger and face thunderous bombardment.
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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.”
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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.
“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.
