Russians evacuated from the Gaza Strip, who are now in Cairo, said that their housing was destroyed as a result of massive shelling. Izvestia spoke with them on Tuesday, November 14.
“I don’t know where to return, even if the conflict stops: there are only ruins there. Our houses are gone. Gaza was completely erased,” notes one of the evacuated men.
Another resident noted that every day she saw the ruins that remained from buildings destroyed at night. She notes that populated areas were bombed every night without stopping. During one of these attacks, the woman’s relatives were killed.
“Before our eyes, rockets flew into their house. We didn’t understand at first, but when we got to the roof, it became clear that half the family had died. We survived every day: every night there were explosions, we jumped up and ran, taking only the bags that contained the documents. They took refuge in safe places away from buildings. When we left in the morning, it was terrible: we had small children, relatives, my husband’s mother, and all his brothers left in the house. We don’t know how this will all end,” says the woman.
She notes that electricity and water were cut off in the houses. According to her, people did not have clean drinking water; they had to look for it every day.
The woman notes that residents tried to go to the market every day to buy food, because there was nothing in the stores: according to her, everything was taken away in exactly a week.
On this day, specialists from the Federal Center for Disaster Medicine of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation and federal medical organizations of the ministry examined 98 people who left the Gaza Strip through the Rafah checkpoint. Among them were 39 children, four of whom were under three years old. Based on the results of the inspection, the condition of the citizens is assessed as satisfactory, and everyone has been cleared for the flight.
The day before, 70 Russians evacuated from the Gaza Strip were delivered to Moscow by a special flight of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations. They were accompanied on the flight by doctors and psychologists from the department. As Assistant Minister Alexander Korovin noted, the citizens did not need emergency medical care, but employees of the Center for Extreme Psychological Assistance are working with them.
The Russian Foreign Ministry reported on November 13 that the evacuation would continue until all Russians had been removed. The diplomatic department added that the Russian side is grateful to representatives of the Egyptian, Israeli, Qatari and Palestinian authorities for their effective assistance.
On October 7, the Palestinian Hamas movement subjected Israeli territory to massive rocket fire, which was carried out from the Gaza Strip, and also invaded the border areas in the south of the country. On the same day, the Israeli side began retaliating against targets in the Gaza Strip.
Later, on October 20, Israel announced that it had decided to launch a ground operation in the Gaza Strip. On November 3, the IDF entered Gaza to conduct military operations against Hamas. According to the Chief of the General Staff of the Israeli Army, Herzi Halevi, the military is already fighting in the city center “face to face” with militants of the Palestinian movement. At the same time, the press service of the Israeli army reported that, if necessary, the IDF could expand the operation to other areas of the enclave, including the south of the Gaza Strip.
According to the latest data, the death toll in the Gaza Strip has exceeded 11 thousand people, and another 27.5 thousand were injured. On the Israeli side, 1,405 people were killed and another 5.6 thousand were injured.
Palestinians are seeking to return the borders between the two countries to the lines that existed before the 1967 Six-Day War. Palestine wants to create its own state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and make East Jerusalem its capital. Israel refuses the conditions set.
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