Israeli strikes kill 14: Palestinians say Netanyahu making North Gaza a buffer zone, planning return of Jewish settlers

Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday (November 13) killed at least 14 Palestinians.

The attacks came as Israeli forces further continued their incursion into Beit Hanoun town located on the northeast edge of the Gaza Strip, forcing most remaining residents to leave.

According to residents of the area, Israeli forces surrounded places that were sheltering displaced families and the remaining population– approximately a few thousand people, according to some estimates.

The Israeli side ordered Palestinians to head south through a checkpoint that separates two towns and a refugee camp in the north from Gaza City.

Palestinian medics, as well as residents said that the Israeli personnel held men back for questioning, while allowing women and children to continue towards Gaza City.

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Jewish settlers to return?

Palestinians claim that Israel’s campaign in the north of Gaza, and the consequent evacuation of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the area, is aimed at clearing the area for use as a buffer zone and potentially for a return of Jewish settlers.

“North Gaza is being turned into a large buffer zone, Israel is carrying out ethnic cleansing under the sight and hearing of the impotent world,” Reuters quoted Saed, a 48-year-old resident of Beit Lahiya, who arrived in Gaza City on Wednesday, as saying.

More than 43,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza over the past year, Palestinian health officials say.

“The scenes of the 1948 catastrophe are being repeated. Israel is repeating its massacres, displacement and destruction,” Saed said via a chat app.

The “1948 catastrophe” he was referring to is the Middle East Arab-Israeli war which led to the formation of what is now the state of Israel. That war saw the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their home towns and villages.

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Although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he does not want to reverse the 2005 withdrawal of settlers from Gaza, his government’s hardliners have talked openly about going back. In line with the Prime Minister’s statement, the Israeli military has denied any such intention.

In the war, Gaza has been reduced to a wasteland of wrecked buildings and piles of rubble, where more than 2 million Gazans are seeking shelter in makeshift tents and facing shortages of food and medicines.

With inputs from Reuters