After Hamas’ attack on an unprecedented scale against Israel, Israeli forces responded massively against targets in Gaza. The inhabitants confide their fatalism in the face of this “new war”.
On the phone, continuous dull explosion sounds resound: “I think you can hear the bombings in my neighborhood. It is a residential building which is targeted“, explains Maha Hussein, a resident of Gaza. After the deadliest attack on its territory since its creation, Israel officially declared war on Sunday October 8 on Hamas, after the unprecedented offensive launched the day before by the Palestinian Islamist movement from Gaza. According to the army’s latest count, on Monday, more than 700 Israelis were killed in just over 48 hours, and 2,150 were injured. Up to 250 people were massacred at a rave party near Gaza, according to an NGO. And Israel admitted that more than 100 Israeli civilians and soldiers had been kidnapped. On the Palestinian side, 560 people were killed and 2,900 were injured, according to local authorities.
>> Hamas attack on Israel: follow our live
On Monday, Israeli forces continued to hunt down Hamas members still present in southern Israel and continued their airstrikes against targets in Gaza, where new buildings were destroyed.
Speaking to franceinfo, Maha Hussein assures us: wanting to escape the bombs, the inhabitants of Gaza must evacuate the residential towers in a few minutes, leaving almost everything behind them. But in this densely populated area, all these people have “nowhere to go”she specifies. “It is ironic and hurtful to hear Benjamin Netanyahu telling Gazans to flee their homes. We have no other place to go, and there is no safe place in Gaza. Unlike Israel, we do not we don’t have air raid shelters“, she denounces.
In Gaza, “our life can end in a fraction of a second”
So, the residents set up a D system, hoping that their house will not be next: the families put tape on the windows, but live in fear, the horror of seeing the number of dead and injured constantly increasing. “to weigh down,” explains Hikmat. “My children, until this moment, have not slept because of the continuous Israeli raids. My son is ten years old, and psychologically, it’s very hard. How do you expect him to grow normally?“Before specifying: in Gaza,”our life can end in a split second“.
Despair, resignation, weariness: Ahmed, 32, was born in Gaza and has never left his enclave under Israeli blockade. He has experienced five wars in 15 years: “One more, one less, what’s the difference? No one will escape death. Today, tomorrow it will strike when my time comes” he says, fatalistically. Ahmed continues: “Israel colonized our land. The Israelis have forced part of our Palestinian people into exile, another part lives marginalized, and yet another part is here in Gaza, under blockade… We live like animals. Some of us have become monsters. And when these monsters attack their creator, we wonder why? Then they call us terrorists, child killers and civilians.”denounces Ahmed.
“We just want the same rights for everyone”
According to him, the Jewish state is responsible for all the innocent victims, Palestinian or Israeli. “It is the occupation and injustice that generate all this violenceexplains the young man. They say the land here does not belong to the Palestinians. Either. It is the sacred land of the children of Israel. God himself ordered them to live there. And us then? Are we good to throw away? Couldn’t we all live here together in peace? Even if they want to be in power, we accept it. We just want the same rights for everyone“. And to conclude: “This tragedy that Israel has just experienced is our daily life in Gaza“, he said. Like wishful thinking, Ahmed hopes that the world will finally become aware of the reality endured in Gaza.
The war between the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and Israel has displaced more than 123,000 people in the Gaza Strip, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs announced on Monday. “Hostilities caused internal displacement” of population, of which “more than 17,500 families representing 123,538 people (…), mainly because of fear, concerns for their protection and the destruction of their homes“.