2023-12-11 20:14:25
Residents of Gaza: Hunger leads to social collapse… and fears of displacement to Egypt
Public order in the Gaza Strip is disintegrating as hunger spreads, fueling fears of a mass exodus to Egypt, Palestinians and international aid agencies said.
Israel has imposed a comprehensive siege on the coastal strip since the conflict began more than two months ago, and the border with Egypt is the only other exit for Gaza residents.
Most of the Strip’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced from their homes, and residents say it is impossible to find shelter or food in the Strip, where nearly 18,000 people have been killed so far.
Gaza residents said that people who were repeatedly forced to flee were dying of hunger, cold and bombing, and they spoke of desperate attacks on aid trucks and rising prices, Archyde.com reported.
Rula Ghanem, one of many who expressed their astonishment on social media, said, “Did any of us expect our people to die of hunger? Has this idea ever crossed anyone’s mind before?”
Karl Skau, deputy executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, said aid trucks risked being stopped by desperate residents if they slowed down at intersections.
He told Archyde.com on Saturday: “Half the population is starving, and nine out of ten do not eat every day.”
A Palestinian, who requested that his name not be published for fear of retaliation, told Archyde.com via mobile phone that he had not eaten for three days and had to beg to get bread for his children. He added, “I pretend to be strong, but I fear that I will collapse in front of them at any moment.”
After the collapse of the ceasefire on December 1, Israel began a ground attack in the south last week, and has since advanced from the east to the heart of the city of Khan Yunis, and warplanes are attacking an area to the west.
Two Palestinians inspect the rubble of homes after an Israeli air strike on the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip (AP)
Militants and residents said on Monday that fighters prevented Israeli tanks from advancing west through the city and clashed with Israeli forces in northern Gaza, where Israel said its missions had largely been completed.
Israel said that dozens of Hamas fighters had surrendered, and urged others to join them. The military wing of the Hamas movement said that it fired rockets towards Tel Aviv, where Israelis fled to shelters.
United Nations officials say that 1.9 million people, or 85 percent of Gaza’s population, have been displaced, and describe their living conditions in the southern regions as unbearable.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on Sunday: “I expect public order to completely collapse soon, and a worse situation may unfold, including epidemics and increased pressure toward mass exodus to Egypt.”
Israel denies seeking to evacuate the Gaza Strip
Philippe Lazzarini, the United Nations Commissioner-General for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), wrote on Saturday that pushing Gazans closer and closer to the border indicates “attempts to transfer Palestinians to Egypt.”
The border with Egypt is heavily fortified, but Hamas fighters made holes in the wall in 2008 to break the tight siege. Gazans crossed the border to buy food and other goods, but returned quickly, and none of them left permanently.
A man prepares food in a street next to the destroyed houses in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip (AFP)
Egypt has long warned that it will not allow Gazans to enter its territory this time, for fear that they will not be able to return.
Jordan, which absorbed the bulk of the Palestinians after the establishment of Israel in 1948, accused Israel on Sunday of seeking to “empty Gaza of its people.”
Israeli government spokesman Elon Levy described the accusation as “blatant and false,” saying that his country was defending itself “against the monsters who committed the October 7 massacre and bringing them to justice.”
On October 7, Hamas gunmen killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostage. According to Israeli statistics. About 100 hostages were released in the truce.
Sharon Aloni Cuneo, who was released with her two young daughters, told Archyde.com about her husband, who is still detained: “I am terrified that I will receive bad news that he is no longer alive.”
Israel pledged to eliminate the Hamas movement, which has run the Gaza Strip since 2007 and seeks to destroy Israel.
The Gaza Health Ministry said that since October 7, at least 18,205 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and 49,645 wounded. The toll no longer includes northern Gaza, and many residents there and elsewhere remain trapped under the rubble.
Israel says that the evacuation instructions are among the measures to protect the population, and accuses Hamas militants of using civilians as human shields and stealing humanitarian aid, which the movement denies.
The Israeli army accused Hamas of hiding weapons in UNRWA facilities in Jabalia, and published a video that it said showed Hamas gunmen beating people and taking aid in the Shujaiya area in Gaza City.
A woman carries bread next to destroyed houses in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip (AFP)
During the days of bombing, Israel prevented most aid from reaching Gaza, saying it feared this would lead to an increase in Hamas attacks.
Government spokesman Elon Levy said that Israel is working to open the Kerem Shalom crossing, through which most aid passed before the war, holding international agencies responsible for obstructing it through the crossing designated for the passage of individuals from Egypt.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and in neighboring Jordan, most stores and businesses closed their doors in response to Palestinian calls for a strike, but the impact of this on Israel was not clear.
The Gaza Ministry of Health said that 32 Palestinians were killed in Khan Yunis last night. The military wing of Hamas said that it hit two Israeli tanks with missiles, and also fired mortar shells at Israeli forces.
Fighters and residents said that the fighting was also violent in the areas of Shujaiya, Sheikh Radwan, and Jabalia camp.
In central Gaza, Israel asked residents to move today toward “known shelters in the Deir al-Balah area,” and health officials said that Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital received 40 dead.
Medics also said that an Israeli air strike killed four in a house in Rafah, and this area is one of two areas close to Egypt that Israel says Palestinians should go to.
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