Feature: Families flee home in Gaza Strip amid intensified conflicts between Hamas, Israel

2021-05-15 06:35:15 GMT2021-05-15 14:35:15(Beijing Time) Xinhua English

by Sanaa Kamal, Emad Drimly

GAZA, May 15 (Xinhua) -- As conflicts between Palestinians and Israelis have been entering the sixth day, 60-year-old Najah Abu Salem and her family had to flee their home in the Gaza Strip.

"I am worried about my children and grandchildren. The Israelis are bombing heavily. It is the fiercest violence since the 2014 war," said Abu Salem who lives in the eastern part of the besieged coastal enclave bordering Israel.

"We only took our personal belongings ... There is no safe place in Gaza, but the west of the city is much safer," she said before jumping into a car to take shelter in her relative's house in the western neighbourhood.

Abu Salem's family is not the only one that is forced to flee the ongoing conflicts. The main streets in northern and eastern Gaza are crowded with Palestinians escaping Israeli airstrikes.

The sharp escalation began on Monday after Hamas set an ultimatum for Israel to withdraw its forces from the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, where hundreds of Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli police earlier that day.

Hamas said at least 133 Palestinians were killed, including 36 children and 20 women, in the Israeli airstrikes. Israel said seven Israelis were killed and more than 100 injured by rockets fired by Hamas militants.

Ahmed Ayyad, 35, also lived in the eastern part of Gaza city with his wife and three children. Among many displaced people, they walked several kilometers to the city center.

"I have to leave rapidly because it is so dangerous here. The bombardment barely stops and I don't want my kids to be harmed," Ayyad said as he carried two of his kids.

He recalled the death of dozens of Palestinians, including some of his relatives, during the war in 2014. "I hope the conflict will end soon and a ceasefire agreement would be reached to save the lives of our people. Gaza has the right to live in calm and security like the rest of the people in the world."

Most of the displaced families living near the border with Israel took shelter at homes of their relatives, in government hospitals and schools of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

At one of the UNRWA schools in western Gaza, Um Mohammed Obaida complained of the deadly conflicts.

"Our home is only 500 meters away from the border with Israel. We cannot get to sleep at night due to the heavy bombing that almost hit every corner across the Gaza Strip," she said, with tears rolling down her pale thin face. "We are supposed to be celebrating the Eid al-Fitr holidays, but the conflict has made us displaced."

UNRWA said many Palestinians are taking shelter in its schools, especially in the northern part of Gaza.

"As with previous armed conflict experiences in Gaza, UNRWA has to turn identified schools into properly managed shelters quickly," the agency said in a statement.

"In 2021, the situation is slightly different in that we now have to consider the COVID-19 pandemic and how to minimize the risk of people crowding in a very confined space and spreading the virus," the statement added.

UNRWA said it is currently putting in place necessary measures in these schools-turned-shelters, and is doing all it can to make sure as quickly these schools are safe enough for displaced people.

Israel has called up thousands of reservists ahead of a possible ground operation in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Gaza has been placed under a tight Israeli blockade since the Islamic Hamas movement seized the territory by force in 2007 after routing forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas.

Three major wars broke out between 2008 and 2014 in the Gaza Strip, which left thousands of people dead and injured, most of them Palestinians.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that around 10,000 Palestinians have left homes in Gaza due to the ongoing hostilities.

"They are sheltering in schools, mosques, and other places during a global COVID-19 pandemic with limited access to water, food, hygiene, and health services," it said.

"Hospitals and access to water and sanitation services depend on electricity, the fuel for which will run out on Sunday," it added.

It urged Israeli authorities and Palestinian groups to immediately allow the UN and its humanitarian partners to bring in fuel, food, and medical supplies and to deploy humanitarian personnel. Enditem

| PRINT | RSS