Some of them are fleeing for the third or fourth time in less than two months.
Most of the 2.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip have become homeless due to the war between Israel and Hamas.
The new wave of displacement after the end of the week-long truce on December 1 exacerbates an already catastrophic humanitarian situation.
In Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, where Israel launched a long-expected attack, Palestinians who had sought protection from air strikes by setting up tents on the grounds of the city’s Nasser Hospital were dismantling their tents and loading piles of mats and blankets onto cars or donkey carts.
Abu Omar, a middle-aged man who had left his home in the eastern part of the city and taken refuge in the hospital camp with his family, said: “We are preparing to leave Khan Yunis, heading to Rafah. We have been here for about 50 days.”
Rafah, located to the south on the border with Egypt, is one of the last remaining areas where the Israeli army said civilians could go to escape the fighting, despite being subjected to numerous air strikes.
Abu Omar said as he stood next to a car with luggage piled on the roof: “There is no safe place… but in the end we go to the place where we think there might be a little bit of safety.”
But displaced people in Rafah say their living conditions are horrific.
“There are no toilets,” says Enas Musleh, sitting with her children in a shelter made of wooden planks and transparent plastic sheets. “We cannot even perform ablution if we want to pray. There is no place to perform ablution or pray. If we want to wash our children’s hands, there is no place for that. There is not even A place where we can make or get bread.”
She added, her face soaked in tears: “We spend the whole night hearing missiles and bombing. We live between life and death. We may die at any moment.”
overcrowding
- Khan Yunis was home to 381,000 people before the war.
- A United Nations spokesman said that another 245,000 people displaced by the Israeli bombing of the northern part of Gaza took refuge in Khan Yunis in 71 different locations.
- The Israeli army called on residents to evacuate three specific areas in Rafah Governorate.
- These areas were already crowded with about 280,000 residents and 470,000 displaced people who arrived after the war began on October 7.
The UN spokesman said, “The transfer order will effectively raise the number of people in Rafah to 1.35 million people, by pushing an additional 600,000 people from Khan Yunis to an area with a current population of 750,000 people, where the ability of the United Nations and its partners to provide assistance faces challenges.” “Really dangerous.”
Hamas militants stormed the border fence into southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping 240 hostages, according to Israeli statistics.
More than 16,250 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli military response to Gaza, according to figures from Gaza health officials who the United Nations considers reliable sources.
Hassan Al-Basiouni’s home was located in Beit Hanoun, a town in northeastern Gaza, where 52,000 people lived, but which was bombed so badly that almost no building was left habitable.
He explained that he initially moved with his family to a shelter elsewhere in northern Gaza, then to the Nasser Hospital camp in Khan Yunis, and now they are on their way to Rafah in the third displacement in less than two months.
He said: “Safety comes from God alone. And whatever God wills, it happens.”
#Gaza #families #fleeing #Rafah #overcrowded #dire #conditions