“There is no safe place” in the Gaza Strip, residents deplore

During his visit to Israel on Wednesday, October 18, United States President Joe Biden must try to unblock humanitarian aid blocked at the border with Egypt. The Americans are also working to set up secure zones that would be spared from Israeli strikes, after hundreds of people were killed Tuesday in a strike on a hospital compound in Gaza. The two belligerents blame each other: Hamas attributed this strike to the Israeli army, while Israel attributes this destruction to a failed rocket attack by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Around 600,000 Gazans moved south at the request of the Israelis. Iyad is 36 years old and lives 10 km from the border with Egypt, in the south of the Gaza Strip, in a three-story building which houses his family and displaced people. There are 45 in total living in this building, with a feeling he says “permanent insecurity” : “Fear is truly everywhere in Gaza.”

“When we walk in the streets today, we use masks. Because there are the corpses of the dead who are stuck under the rubble of the houses.”

Iyad, Gazaoui

at franceinfo

In this war even UN buildings do not offer absolute protection. Jehad Abu Hassan has had his three children living in the basement of a United Nations training center for a week. He considers that the UN flag offers relative security. “This morning, I saw a missile falling a few hundred meters from where I am. We had a little sand fall on our heads, so there is no safe place.”

However, Iyad in Khan Younes expects nothing from security zones that would be guaranteed by the Israelis and the Americans, he is rather wary of them. ” We don’t trust Westerners in general. That’s really misinformation.” With this blocked situation in the south of the enclave, without security or humanitarian aid, some displaced people are considering returning home. Even if the journey now seems very complicated.