This is Jabalia, the refugee camp located in the Gaza Strip that Israel has bombed

The attack on Jabalia, the largest refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, was one of the last of the bombings carried out by Israel in the context of the war against Hamas.. The attack, which took place this Wednesday, has been one of the deadliest since the conflict began: so far, the death toll is 145, according to Gazan hospital sources. The UN speaks of at least 50, although it is very possible that the number will increase in the coming hours.

The attack, which has been claimed by the Israeli army, has also left hundreds affected and the area in ruins, in what has been a new step in the strong humanitarian crisis that the territory has been going through since the beginning of the war.. What is it and how many people live in Jabalia? What is your situation? Why has Israel attacked it?

Created in 1948 to accommodate displaced Palestinians

The Jabalia refugee camp was created in 1948, as a consequence of the Palestine Partition Plan approved by the United Nations a year earlier, which promoted the creation of a Jewish state and an Arab state in the former British Mandate of Palestine.. As a consequence of Israel's subsequent independence and the Arab-Israeli War of 1948, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were displaced to Gaza by advancing Israeli troops.

At the end of the war, the Israeli state denied displaced Palestinians, approximately 700,000, return to their homes within the new Israeli borders.. The United Nations then established the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and created a series of refugee camps in Gaza, as well as in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.

One of those camps founded by UNRWA was Jabalia, where 35,000 refugees initially settled.. According to the last official census published (in 2008), 195,249 people live there, 107,590 in the camp itself and 87,659 in its surroundings.

Humanitarian aid, decisive for its inhabitants

The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated territories in the world, and Jabalia is no exception. The refugee camp has an area of 1.4 km², a place with a high population density in which supplying essential services to the entire population is not an easy task.. The landscape is typical of any town in Gaza: residential blocks as far as the eye can see, many of them practically in ruins, where its inhabitants try to cope with their precarious situation.

UNRWA tries to provide health care to the population, especially to the 3,900 families (18,356 people) considered “cases of special need” due to their situation.. The United Nations mission also maintains an education system with 25 schools, a sanitation program (to provide drinking water, urban cleaning and pest control), a business financing program (which has allowed the opening of a carpentry shop, a gynecology consultation, construction companies or clothing stores, among others) and an emergency program to provide food (on which 89,154 people depend). A humanitarian effort that, however, does not solve the complicated situation of the population of Jabalia.

The proximity to the Israeli borders (Jabalia is barely 6 kilometers from the Erez Pass, on the Israel-Gaza border), makes it, especially in the current context, an area of eternal conflict between Hamas troops and the Israeli Forces. Israeli Defense. The latest attack has resulted in the destruction of an entire neighborhood, with 30 residential buildings, according to a United Nations report.

One of the deadliest attacks so far

The plight of Jabalia residents becomes more complicated as the war between Israel and Hamas intensifies. Within the framework of this new war in the region, there had already been more attacks in the area, but this Wednesday's attack turned out to be one of the deadliest to date.

The Israeli Defense Forces have defended that the attack was directed against Hamas terrorists, and assures that fifty of them have died, including the commander of the Central Jabalia Battalion, Ibrahim Biari, one of the senior Hamas commanders who orchestrated the attack. attack against Israel on October 7. Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari said the war has entered “its third phase” and that Israel is “determined to win, despite the pain.”. Egypt and Jordan have expressed their rejection, while Spain has expressed its “horror” at the civilian victims.

The war seems to be facing a new stage, while in Jabalia the images show a devastating landscape: mountains of rubble, craters in the streets and hundreds of people searching for survivors.