At first, Youssef Mehna thought the conflict would shortly be over. Then he was wounded, his home was destroyed, and he was compelled to outlive “25 days without anything.”
So like 1000’s of others, Mehna lastly fled north Gaza for the south.
Perched on vehicles, crammed into vehicles, pulled by donkeys on carts, and on foot, tens of 1000’s of Palestinians are fleeing Israeli military strikes on the territory squeezed between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean.
At the Bani Suheila crossroads in Khan Yunis, on the immense Salah al-Din street that threads Gaza high to backside, the processions are rising nonetheless.
People fleeing Gaza City are joined by these leaving Khan Yunis and heading additional south, towards Rafah, the final metropolis earlier than Egypt.
Mehna left the Jabalia refugee camp at seven within the morning, within the north of Gaza City, additionally hoping to achieve Rafah.
But his journey completed in Khan Yunis, after eight hours of journey protecting solely 25 kilometers (15 miles).
“I already paid 500 shekels ($130) to come from Jabalia and so I have nothing more to carry on to Rafah,” he mentioned with a drawn face, surrounded by his six kids.
‘Not even a morsel of bread’
Because his sick spouse is in a wheelchair, he needed to lease “carts pulled by donkeys, trucks, cars” to move her.
Each journey was brief, as gas shortages stop drivers from accepting long-distance fares.
Sometimes, between automobile rides, they have been compelled to go on foot. “So it was me who pushed my wife’s chair,” he advised Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Around him, a whole bunch of households have been ready.
Children sleep on the ground beside their dad and mom questioning how they are going to reside in a territory the place greater than 1.5 million individuals are displaced and almost one home in two has been destroyed, in keeping with the United Nations.
In southern Gaza, overflowing with displaced from the north, rents of $150 a month are actually as much as $500 to $1000.
“I don’t even have a morsel of bread to feed my kids,” mentioned Umm Yaaqub. “Since six in the morning, I have been looking everywhere.”
“I can’t give them anything to eat,” added the 42-year-old, who arrived in Khan Yunis three days in the past along with her husband and 7 kids from Gaza City.
The U.N. has mentioned entry to bread within the south is “challenging” as a result of “the only operative mill in Gaza remains unable to grind wheat due to a lack of electricity and fuel.”
Israel has carried out an indiscriminate conflict in Gaza in response to the Oct. 7 incursion by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
Israel’s army marketing campaign has since killed greater than 11,100 folks, principally ladies and kids. Israeli casualties are round 1,200.
Before the conflict, a little bit over 80% of Gazans lived in poverty and virtually two-thirds have been depending on worldwide help, particularly for meals, in keeping with the U.N.
Now, 50-kilo sacks of flour have elevated in value from 40 shekels to 150 shekels, so it is worse nonetheless.
‘Not a single shekel’
But starvation is just not the one fear for Umm Yaaqub. “My husband has heart problems,” she says.
And her 20-year-old daughter Rim “is normally in a medical bed.” “But we all sleep on the ground, in the dust, and we don’t have a single blanket even though the nights are very cold.”
Her husband Atef Abu Jarad, 47, stays in a classroom on the primary ground of a college the place the household camps now, subsequent to dozens of different displaced.
“I’m the head of the family, but I don’t have a single shekel to buy something for my kids to eat,” he laments.
Shops throughout southern Gaza are operating out of every thing. Bottled water, milk for kids, nappies, pasta and juices are actually almost not possible to seek out.
Just a little meals help is trickling by way of to the displaced in keeping with Abu Jarad: “a portion of rice to share between seven” members of his household.
“So I take a small spoon of rice and I tell them I’m full so they can eat,” he says.
Water flows from a faucet the place lengthy crowds of displaced folks queue. “People push and I don’t have the strength to resist,” he says.
His daughter Rim had to surrender the painkillers she has taken since start as a result of she suffers spinal and shoulder malformations.
“The pain prevents me from sleeping but we can’t buy medicines,” she says.
She too forgoes meals as a result of her brothers and sisters “have more need to eat.”
Source: www.dailysabah.com