UN Says Israeli Assaults on Gaza Have Set Back Development by Seven Decades
HAVANA TIMES – Israel’s leading human rights group B’Tselem has accused the Israeli military of committing “ethnic cleansing” in northern Gaza as its devastating siege continues for a 19th day. In the Jabaliya refugee camp, Israeli forces stormed at least three schools sheltering Palestinians, forcing those inside to leave at gunpoint, before setting fire to the buildings.
Palestinians fleeing the shattered remains of Beit Lahia report seeing bodies in the streets and Israeli soldiers detaining and beating men. The stench of death is everywhere.
This comes as a United Nations report published Tuesday found one year of Israeli attacks on Gaza has set back the territory’s economic development nearly seven decades, plunging three of every four surviving Palestinians into poverty, with Israeli strikes on civilian infrastructure leaving behind a “vast wasteland of rubble and twisted steel.” The U.N. warns Palestinians under Israeli siege in northern Gaza “are rapidly exhausting all available means for their survival.”