Nowhere is safe: Palestinians in Gaza move from place to place amid bombardment

Over 180000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are packed into United Nations shelters as Israeli warplanes pound the tiny territory of 23 million people after their Hamas militant rulers launched an unprecedented weekend attack on IsraelAmong them is 27yearold Sabreen alAttar She sprang into action when she heard rocket after rocket whoosh over her farmland in Beit Lahiya just north of the Israeli border on SaturdayShe knew from experience that Israeli retaliation would be swift and severeGrabbing her children alAttar rushed to one of the dozens of shelters set up in schools run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza CityThere blasts of unprecedented intensity punctuated hours of steadily declining conditions Monday as food and water ran outldquoWhen I escape I do it for my childrenrdquo she said her hands trembling ldquoTheir lives rest on my shouldersrdquoBut residents say there is no real escape in Gaza which has been under a suffocating 16year blockade imposed by Israel and EgyptWhen war breaks out as it has four times since the Hamas militant group seized power in 2007 even United Nations facilities that are supposed to be safe zones risk becoming engulfed in the fightingAlso read An Israeli airstrike kills 19 members of the same family in a Gaza refugee campThe UN said that an airstrike directly hit one of its shelters Sunday and damaged five other schoolsturnedshelters on Monday There was no immediate word of casualtiesIn the downtown Rimal area Gaza Citys bustling commercial district with highrises home to international media and aid organisations alAttar hoped she would be safeRimal had until then not been an immediate Israeli target unlike border towns or densely populated refugee campsBut as the Israeli military went neighbourhood to neighbourhood with rapid and intensifying airstrikes the heavy bombardments reached the heart of Gaza City transforming the affluent neighbourhood into an uninhabitable desert of cratersRimal was also hit by Israeli airstrikes in Gazas bloody 2021 war but not to this extentIsraeli bombs that struck Gazas flagship Islamic University government ministries and highrises in Rimal starting Monday afternoon also blew out the windows of alAttars shelter shattering glass everywhere she saidLife there crammed with 1500 other families was full of danger and deprivation but AlAttar said she had no choice but to stay telling her boys ldquo2yearold Mohammed and 7yearold Nabilrdquo to keep away from the windowsldquoThe night was very very difficultrdquo she said Tuesday ldquoWe have nowhere else to gordquoThe bombing in Rimal and the potential risks of sheltering in UN schools highlighted the desperate search by Gaza civilians for refuge with the territorys safe spaces rapidly shrinkingAhead of the Israeli militarys warning to civilians on Monday that Rimal would be hit families staggered into the streets with whatever belongings they could carry and without a destinationIn a briefing Tuesday Israeli army spokesman Lt Col Richard Hecht suggested Palestinians should try to leave through the Gaza border crossing with Egypt a seemingly impractical suggestionWhile Hamas officials operating the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing said Tuesday that Gazans who had registered in advance could cross into Egypt the number of those allowed to travel has typically been smallThat has led to backlogs and waiting times of days or weeks even in calm timesldquoThere is never a Plan B hererdquo said 31yearold Maha Hussaini as she watched terrified Rimal residents flood her Gaza City neighborhood further south just as bombs began to fall there tooSo far the Gaza toll stands at about 700 dead and thousands wounded according to Gaza health officials a punishing response to the militant groups attack that has killed over 900 Israelis More than 150 Israeli civilians and soldiers have been taken captiveIsrael says it takes pains to avoid civilian casualties as it targets Hamas sites in GazaBut the military long has carried out airstrikes in crowded residential neighbourhoods inevitably harming civilians and civilian infrastructureHamas authorities on Monday reported the destruction of seven mosques and 15 civilian homes that killed many members of the same familyThe Israeli defence minister also has ordered a complete siege on the already blockaded Gaza Strip vowing to block food water and fuel from the territoryldquoNone of us even know what safe means in Gazardquo said 28yearold Hind Khoudary who was hunkered down in the upscale Roots Hotel as deafening explosions thunderedldquoThese are not people with militant affiliations these are people from higher classes foreign organisations and media she said of those around her But on days like this there is zero differencerdquoResidents described a dangerous dance around the heavy Israeli bombing iquest fleeing home crashing at relatives apartments fleeing again to UN schools and then starting all over again in an attempt to find some sense of safetyldquoIt is better than dyingrdquo said 37yearold Muhammad alBishawi exhausted as he hustled between a UN shelter in Gaza City and his home in Beit Lahiya to secure food and other supplies before returningOn Saturday after the massive Hamas attack Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Gaza civilians of the horrors to come promising to unleash the full force of the Israeli military on the stripldquoGet out nowrdquo he said addressing Palestinians in Gaza ldquoBecause we will operate everywhererdquoKhoudary was listening to him as the airstrikes intensified trapped in her home with nowhere to runldquoWhy didnt he tell us where to fleerdquo she asked ldquoBecause wed really like to knowrdquo AP