Amid relentless Israeli airstrikes, thousands of Palestinians fled the central Gaza Strip towards the southern territory on Friday, carrying their meager belongings on wheelchairs or carts. Many sought refuge in recent days at the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, hoping to find safety after being displaced multiple times since the outbreak of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on October 7.
For this latest exodus, some utilized donkey-drawn carts to transport their belongings, families escaped with infants in cars, and others assisted elderly relatives in navigating the crowd, laden with blankets for the winter.
“This is not life: no water, no food, nothing,” lamented Wala al Medini, a woman injured in an airstrike in Gaza City who fled in a wheelchair. “My daughter died in my lap, and I was rescued from the rubble after three hours. Our house and everything around it were destroyed.”
Al Medini revealed that she has not slept well for 40 nights, appealing to the world. “My message to the world is to look at us, see us, and see how we are dying. Why don’t they pay attention?”
On Friday, the Israeli military issued an evacuation order for residents of the Bureij camp, instructing them to head to Deir al-Balah, further south.
The Israeli bombardment and ground offensive have displaced 1.9 million Gazans, according to UN data, comprising over three-quarters of the population in this small territory spanning 362 km2. Most of Gaza’s hospitals are out of service, with only nine operating partially, as reported by the World Health Organization.
In the Aqsa hospital in central Gaza, medical staff struggled to accommodate patients arriving on stretchers from another refugee camp in Al Maghazi. The overcrowded health center witnessed doctors tending to an injured child on the floor while a bloodied baby cried in a crib placed on the ground.
Clashes between Israeli soldiers and Hamas fighters were reported on the streets in some areas of Gaza City.
The conflict, initiated when Hamas militants breached Israeli territory and launched a bloody assault on October 7, resulted in 1,140 deaths, mostly civilians, according to the AFP’s tally based on official figures from Israeli authorities. That day, Palestinian militants abducted around 250 people.
In retaliation, Israel vowed to obliterate the Palestinian Islamist movement and initiated a barrage of airstrikes, followed by a ground offensive in Gaza. Hamas, which governs the territory, claims that these attacks resulted in 20,057 deaths, predominantly women and children.
Amidst widespread destruction, displaced individuals sought refuge in shelters or tents, facing challenges in securing food, fuel, water, and medication. Salem Yusef, a resident of the Bureij camp, recounted fleeing Gaza City, taking refuge in Al Shifa hospital, and spending a month and a half in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
Yusef is uncertain whether to continue his exodus towards Rafah. Despite Israeli calls for Gaza residents to seek shelter in allegedly secure areas, airstrikes persist in striking these zones.
“They tell us it’s safe, but there is no safe place,” declared Yusef, expressing hope that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “stops the crimes and killings of innocents and stops claiming he hit positions (of the Ezzedin al Qasam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing) when he can’t even reach them.”
“I also hope he stops killing innocent children and destroying homes,” he added. “This is wrong; everything Netanyahu does is wrong.”