After the attacks by the Islamist Hamas, Israel bombed the Gaza Strip. A million Palestinians are being asked to flee. Eyewitnesses on site report sheer panic.
Mohammed Talatene leaves his home in the Gaza Strip with his daughter in his arms. It was shortly after midnight when the Israeli military asked them to leave the north of the Gaza Strip, reports the dpa photographer. “My wife was carrying my other daughter.” They were traveling on foot. There is hardly any gasoline for cars anymore.
“All the houses are destroyed and there are no means of communication or transport,” says Talatene, describing the dramatic situation on site. “I expect I will die from the explosions at any moment.” He would like to walk with his daughters to a safe place. But this doesn’t exist.
Streets in rubble and ashes
Israel’s air force has been attacking targets in the Gaza Strip for days in response to a massacre by the Islamist Hamas. Around 1,800 Palestinians have been killed since then. More than 6,600 people were injured, including around 580 minors and 350 women.
Eyewitnesses report streets in ruins, hospitals that can no longer accept patients, and food that is running out. People in panic. Videos on social networks show dozens of people in truck beds with bags and backpacks. Other images showed people riding donkey carts or walking south on Gaza’s only main road.
A large number of Gaza residents have already left, eyewitnesses reported. Others were still waiting for clear instructions on Friday morning. The Israeli call, which was distributed, among other things, with leaflets in Arabic, said that people should move south of Wadi Gaza.
The riverbed divides the coastal strip in half. The United Nations immediately called on Israel to revoke the order. There is a threat of a “catastrophic situation”.
Hamas calls for them to stay
Hamas tried to discourage civilians from heeding Israel’s call. You shouldn’t fall for the “propaganda news”. Roadblocks were also reportedly set up. Hamas officially called on the fleeing population to return to the north.
The Israeli military accused the Palestinian organization of using its own population as a “protective shield.” Hamas terrorists were hiding in tunnels under civilian homes and buildings in Gaza, a spokesman said.
Meanwhile, Israel’s airstrikes and bombings continued. The UN relief agency UNRWA speaks of a “hellhole”. The Gaza Strip is on the verge of collapse. “The scale and speed at which the humanitarian crisis is developing is frightening,” the organization said in a statement. All parties are called upon to comply with the laws of war. “It’s time for humanity to prevail.”
Ask where to go
An evacuation within 24 hours, which according to the UN affects around 1.1 million people, presents aid organizations with an almost impossible challenge. The director of the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, Mohammed Abu Salima, considers them excluded from his facility. “Where are they supposed to go? We can’t transport the patients anywhere,” Abu Salima told the New York Times.
The question of where to go also concerns the people in the Gaza Strip. The area, which is roughly the same size as Munich, has been completely cordoned off for days. The only border crossing into Egypt was destroyed, and there is no way out to Israel either.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi indicated this week that the country wants to avoid accepting Palestinian refugees. Palestinians in Gaza must “stand firm and remain on their land.”
A spokesman for the Israeli military confirmed that the army wanted to “control the attacks” so that civilians could move around safely. However, he added that the Gaza Strip was a “war zone”.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
