Angelina Jolie has taken a bold stance on Israel’s recent military actions, specifically their bombing of the Jabalia refugee camp located north of Gaza. Through her Instagram post, Jolie posted a harrowing image of the aftermath at the refugee camp, clearly condemning Israel’s actions in the region.
Jolie emphasized the camp’s history, noting its significance as the largest refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Drawing on data from UNWRA (the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees), she contextualized the camp’s origin, dating back to the aftermath of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
Jolie pulled no punches with her words: “This is the deliberate bombing of a trapped population that has no place to flee to,” elaborating on the devastating conditions in Gaza. She added, “Gaza has been an open-air prison for nearly two decades and is too quickly becoming a mass grave.”
Highlighting the human toll, Jolie remarked, “Forty per cent of those killed are innocent children. Whole families are murdered.” She further criticized the global response, lamenting the lack of action from world leaders to prevent the ongoing violence.
The Devastating Attack on Jabalia
On October 31, the Jabalia refugee camp was targeted in Israeli airstrikes. Reports indicated that before the conflict began in early October, the camp had a staggering 116,000 residents living in a mere 0.5 square miles.
Israel’s justification for the attack was centred on damaging Hamas’s control in the area, thereby hindering their military operations against the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in the Gaza Strip. Israel stated, “A large number of terrorists who were with Biari were killed. Underground terror infrastructure embedded beneath the buildings, used by the terrorists, also collapsed after the strike.”
The ramifications for the locals were severe. The health ministry in Gaza reported that the attack resulted in 50 deaths and injured 150 people. However, a local hospital provided even grimmer statistics, claiming to have received 400 casualties, of which 120 succumbed to their injuries.
A first-hand account from a Jabalia resident, Ragheb Aqal, painted a grim picture of the devastation. He told AFP, “Homes buried under the rubble and body parts and martyrs and wounded in huge numbers.”
