Gaza Residents Flee As Israeli Bombardment Escalates

With Israeli airstrikes relentlessly targeting residential neighborhoods in Gaza, the humanitarian crisis is deepening as residents are left with no choice but to flee to the central area in search of safety.

News ID: ۸۲۴۸۱۱

13 February 2024

EghtesadOnline: Hundreds of Palestinians have started to flee Rafah city for the central area. They’re looking for refuge after heavy bombardment in overnight attacks. More residential homes are being attacked and destroyed. People are being squeezed into small parts of the Gaza Strip, turned largely into refugee camps.

In southern Khan Younis, for the 17th day in a row, Nasser Hospital is under military siege. There are snipers in the vicinity shooting at everything that moves. The hospital announced it ran completely out of fuel and is now experiencing a total power blackout.

Sewage is flooding in certain areas of the hospital and there are no generators to drain it so this is causing another health risk.

The president of the United Nations General Assembly, Dennis Francis, has said that he is “deeply distressed” by Israel’s escalating military operation in Rafah in southern Gaza.

“Another phase of this humanitarian catastrophe is at our doorstep. This is not a path to sustainable peace,” he wrote on X.

His comments join a chorus of condemnation and concern over Israel’s looming ground operations in Rafah, an area once declared a “safe zone” and where 1.4 million Palestinians have sought refuge from fighting.

In Gaza, amid the ongoing Israeli war, women like Aziza al-Harazin, aged 65, have experienced displacement repeatedly – four times since the war began. Despite the dangers, many, including Aziza, are resolute in their decision to remain in their homeland, rooted in generations of history. "We are not willing to abandon our ancestral land," she said.

Another woman, who preferred to remain anonymous, shared a harrowing account of being displaced more than eight times since the conflict's onset, often with her three grandchildren, all under one year old. Reflecting on the relentless bombing, she lamented, "Nowhere feels secure here." / Tasnim