As Israel Ramps Up Gaza Airstrikes, Evacuees Point Out No Place Is Actually Safe

As Israel Ramps Up Gaza Airstrikes, Evacuees Point Out No Place Is Actually Safe

Hundreds of countless Palestinians that hearkened the Israeli armed force’s purchase to vacate parts of the Gaza Bit are actually dealing with lethal airstrikes coming from Israeli warplanes also after they’ve relocated. As well as a gloomy inquiry loomed the territory on Tuesday: Existed anywhere risk-free to go?

Last full week, after the lethal Oct. 7 cross-border strikes through Hamas, Israel purchased every one of Gaza’s northerly individuals — some 1.1 thousand folks — to desert their homes in front of a counted on ground intrusion of the bit as well as to move southern. Manies 1000s complied with, leaving behind through cars and truck, bike as well as also walking.

But on Tuesday, Israel said it had intensified its bombing in the southern Gaza cities of Khan Younis and Rafah, just as the residential buildings there were swelling with new arrivals and as food, water, medicines and other supplies were running out.

Asked why Israel continued to strike in southern Gaza after ordering people to evacuate there, Maj. Nir Dinar, an Israeli military spokesman, said that Israel sought to avoid civilian casualties but that members of Hamas were hiding out among Gazan civilians. He added that southern Gaza was relatively safer than the north, but not entirely safe.

Some Palestinians who fled the north said they were considering returning to their homes as strikes intensify in the south. The north has been under relentless bombardment by Israel for the past 10 days.

“There’s constant bombing, even in these areas they say are safe — but there are no more safe places in Gaza,” said Mohammad Ayoub, 57, who had fled with his family from Beit Hanoun with only a few personal items.

“Today is worse than all the previous bad days,” said Dr. Mohamed Zaqout, general manager of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. He said his hospital had received 42 bodies from Tuesday’s strikes; 26 of those remained unidentified in the morgue hours later. The dead included 10 women and 15 children, he said.

An Israeli strike also hit Ahly Arab Hospital in Gaza City, killing at least 500 Palestinians, according to a spokeswoman for the Palestinian Health Ministry. Many civilians were sheltering at the hospital, better known as Al-Ma’amadani.

Asked about the Israeli airstrike on the hospital Major Dina said, “We’re checking.”

Everywhere you turned in Khan Younis, there was a sense of a city on the brink of disaster. People were sleeping in the streets. There were long lines in front of water tanks, bakeries and market stalls, with fights erupting over the last remaining loaves of bread and tomatoes. Some people were building ovens from sand and soil to bake bread the traditional way — and save their families from starvation.

Everyone is “just trying to survive,” Yousef Hammash, advocacy officer for the Norwegian Refugee Council, an aid group, said in a voice message from Khan Younis. Mr. Hammash is among those who were displaced from the northern part of Gaza.

The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement on Tuesday that Israel’s evacuation order, combined with an imposition of a “complete siege” on Gaza, might amount to a forcible transfer of civilians, which is illegal under international law.

Some people were staying in U.N. schools turned into shelters, but the majority were being hosted by their extended families in overcrowded homes, or simply sleeping rough.

Rami Abu Moleg, 43, a taxi driver living in the southern city of Deir Al Balah, said his family of five was struggling to find bread and water — all while hosting six members of his cousin’s family who had fled from Gaza City in the north. He described regular bombardment in the area, with at least six explosions since early Tuesday morning.

The house has had no power for four days. The two families were huddled in the same room where they had removed the windows to prevent them from shattering during airstrikes. Two days before, Mr. Abu Moleg said, a house close to theirs was hit, killing three children and their mother.

“If we die, we prefer to die together,” he said of himself and his family.

Southern Gaza’s hospitals have become increasingly stretched thin. At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, the intensive-care unit is full, with no beds available for patients who had amputations or need surgery for brain injuries and severe burns suffered in the latest attacks, according to staff.

Chest tubes — meant to be disposed of after one use — are running out, so doctors are sterilizing them and using them again and again.

The World Health Organization, which has staff members in southern Gaza, said on Tuesday that hospitals there were facing “an acute shortage of medical supplies and equipment,” and “an imminent water and sanitation crisis.”

The limited water supply is putting the lives of more than 3,500 patients in 35 hospitals across the strip at immediate risk, the agency added.

Basil al-Weheidi, a retired official with the United Nationals Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, left his home in Gaza City for Deir al-Balah with his wife, children and extended family to comply with the Israeli evacuation order. However they feel little safer in the southern zone, he claimed.

“There was so much battle in our neighborhood around us; as well as there’s still bombing around us here — it feels close,” Mr. al-Weheidi said by telephone as he charged his phone in his car.

“I can’t tell you exactly where it is, though — we don’t have any internet. We’re in the middle of it all, and also we have no idea what’s going on.”

Abu Bakr Bashir as well as Hiba Yazbek added disclosing.