A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The humanitarian crisis in northern Gaza is dire.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Yeah, Israeli forces have intensified their assault on Hamas in that area, besieging entire towns. Hundreds of Palestinians are being killed and wounded as hospitals shut down, and rescue workers are banned from operating, according to health officials there. There are some questions over what Israel's end game might be with calls for parts of Gaza to be seized as payback for Hamas' attack on Israel last year.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Hadeel Al-Shalchi joins us now from Tel Aviv. So what exactly is happening in northern Gaza right now?
HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, BYLINE: Well, just like Steve was mentioning, there's a serious ground operation there. The military had said that they had cleared Hamas fighters in the north, but now they've regrouped and they're still battling them. For example, troops raided a hospital last week, one of the last three functioning in the north. They rounded up the staff, arrested some of them. And hospital workers are now saying they're running out of things like oxygen tanks, fuel and other basic life supplies.
Airstrikes are also getting worse. A few days ago, the military struck a five-story building in the town of Beit Lahiya. It was full of families of displaced Palestinians. And the Ministry of Health said at least 93 Palestinians were killed or missing, and that at least 25 of the killed were children. Islam Ahmed is a freelance journalist in Beit Lahiya. NPR spoke to him this week.
ISLAM AHMED: (Speaking Arabic).
AL-SHALCHI: Ahmed said he saw bodies strewn on the street. He said there were body parts stuck to the rubble. Ahmed said the situation was very, very bad. The Israeli military said that incident was, quote, "being looked into." And the thing is, last week, the Israeli military demanded that Gaza first responders leave Beit Lahiya. So civilians ended up pulling people out of the rubble themselves and burying the killed in the street.
MARTÍNEZ: The United Nations and aid agencies have said that Israel has drastically reduced the amount of aid and food getting into northern Gaza. What has Israel said to those charges?
AL-SHALCHI: Right, so we need to know that Gaza right now is split into two these days. It's divided by this large, fenced in barrier that Israel's military built just south of Gaza City. It's called the Netzarim Corridor. Aid groups began warning earlier this month that almost no aid trucks were going into the area north of that barrier. And the idea was that maybe the Israeli military was trying to starve out Hamas fighters. But then there's also hundreds of thousands of civilians still living there. And the U.S. actually went as far as threatening to cut off some weapons deliveries to Israel if more supplies aren't allowed in. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, warned Israel against being tempted to use that strategy in besieged towns like Jabaliya and the north.
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LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD: The United States rejects any Israeli efforts to start Palestinians in Jabaliya or anywhere else.
MARTÍNEZ: And, Hadeel, there have been some increasing calls from some in Israel for a lasting military occupation in northern Gaza. Are these likely to come to pass?
AL-SHALCHI: Right, so there have been these calls by the settler community for a return to Gaza for a while now. Israel had Jewish settlements in Gaza until 2005. Now, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that these settlements in Gaza is not realistic. But some of his own ministers were at a rally this week on the Gaza border where settlers from the West Bank called for the government to allow them to return. The idea is maybe the Israeli military could declare north Gaza a closed military zone. Any remaining Palestinian civilians would live in these bubbles surrounded by soldiers. But really, those discussions and decisions really need to come after the war actually ends.
MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR's Hadeel Al-Shalchi in Tel Aviv. Thank you very much.
AL-SHALCHI: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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