Women pleading and children crying, “Get us out of here.” A group of about 20 people advance on foot towards the southern Gaza Strip, carrying packages, blankets, coolers and water cans, fleeing bombardment and seeking shelter. The young father shouts at the head of the displaced people trying to cross the border into Egypt, “I am Egyptian. My father is Egyptian.”
With this scene from a video broadcast on social media platforms, Liberation newspaper opened a report written by Hala Kodmani describing the scenes of the displacement of civilians, which were filmed from the Gaza Strip by a young reporter named Moataz, to document the scourge of war and the fate of hundreds of thousands of residents of the Gaza Strip, which the Israeli army is mercilessly bombing. And relentlessly, as one Khan Yunis resident says, “Since the end of the truce, every day has become more horrific than the day before.”
Al-Rifai: I have a feeling that we have reached the Day of Resurrection… This is the end of the world.
“We received orders from the Israelis to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people,” says Tamara Al-Rifai, Director of External Relations at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
The UN agency – which has sheltered more than 1.2 million civilians in its schools and various buildings since the beginning of the war – estimates that 80% of Gaza’s population, or 1.8 million people, have been displaced, in the largest displacement of Palestinians since 1948.
Two million in 14 square kilometers
Al-Rifai said that Israel is asking them to evacuate everyone to gather them in the Al-Mawasi area, which is devoid of tunnels according to some international sources, which is a small enclave whose area does not exceed 14 square kilometers. She asked angrily, “How can we believe them (the Israelis) when they broke their promise and attacked the south when they asked us to evacuate the residents of northern Gaza?” mechanism?”.
The Director of External Relations at UNRWA concludes by saying, “I have a feeling that we have reached the Day of Judgment. It is the end of the world.”
For his part, spokesman for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), James Elder, said that it is impossible to establish safe areas for civilians in the Gaza Strip, and said, “These areas cannot be safe because they were declared unilaterally. I believe that the authorities are aware of this, which indicates “The indifference to the children and women of Gaza. The situation is heartbreaking and disturbing.”
In turn, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, reiterates the urgent call for the protection of civilians under the laws of war, and for the entry of aid without obstacles.
According to the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator, Lynn Hastings, a more dramatic scenario is beginning to emerge, because the feeling of helplessness affects international organizations that are no longer able to provide minimal assistance to the population.
