Bombardments in southern Gaza: where should the people go?

Situation in the Middle East - Bombardments in southern Gaza: where should the people go?

Israel's massive bombardment in the south of the Gaza Strip, where a large part of the Palestinian civilian population is seeking refuge in a confined space, has caused horror and outrage among aid organizations. "Hundreds and hundreds of explosions. In a place so densely populated with civilians, everything has to hit something... Someone," wrote James Elder, spokesman for the UN Children's Fund Unicef, on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday. Hiba Tibi, director of the aid organization Care, told CNN about the situation of the civilians: "They don't know where to go. There are not enough places to accommodate the people.

According to the health authority in Gaza, which is controlled by the Islamist Hamas, the number of Palestinians killed by Israel's bombardments since the start of the war has now risen to more than 15,000. The majority of the victims are women, children and young people. The authority's figures cannot currently be independently verified.

50 trucks with relief supplies

Meanwhile, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, 50 trucks with relief supplies arrived in Gaza again on Saturday. The trucks were loaded with food, water, medical supplies and medicines. After the end of the ceasefire and with the resumption of fighting on Friday morning, aid deliveries had come to a standstill.

Unicef spokesman Elder described the night into Saturday, in which Israel's army said it had bombed more than 50 targets in the area of the town of Chan Junis in the south of the sealed-off Gaza Strip alone, as "relentless".

Care Director Tibi demanded: "We must protect the civilian population and the vital infrastructure on which they depend". The Islamist Hamas hostages remaining in the Gaza Strip must be released immediately and unconditionally. "We need a humanitarian ceasefire," explained Tibi. "The fighting must stop."

Increased bombardment in Gaza

Israel's military stepped up its bombardment of targets in Gaza on the second day after the week-long ceasefire expired. "My children had recovered somewhat during the week when the bombing and fighting stopped," said 38-year-old Samira Zaid. Now the state of "fear, unrest and destruction" is returning. During the ceasefire, it was almost impossible to get hold of cooking gas, Machmud Badawi explains. "It's unbelievable that we have to prepare our meals over wood fires in the 21st century". Now not even firewood is available.

"We woke up to the explosions and knew the nightmare we hoped was over had returned," said Marsuk, who fled the north and lives in a refugee camp in the south. "The children, women and men in Gaza are terrified. They have nowhere to go for safety and very little to survive on. They live in the midst of disease, destruction and death. This is unacceptable," said the head of the UN Emergency Relief Fund, Martin Griffiths. "What can we do when we have nothing in our hands? We can't stop Hamas, and we can't stop Israel. What is happening here is madness," said Marsuk.

Criticism of new evacuation map

The Israeli army began using a new evacuation map on Saturday that divides the Gaza Strip into hundreds of small zones to inform Palestinian civilians of active combat zones. People from several blocs were called to flee to other districts in the northern Gaza Strip. In the south, Palestinians in several areas near the Israeli border were also told to seek shelter in Rafah.

The map makes it "very difficult and scary for people to know that they have to be evacuated for the sixth or seventh time," Care director Tibi lamented on Saturday. The safe places shown on the map refer to the centers designated by the United Nations. But these are already "extremely overcrowded". People are having to sleep outside, Tibi said.

No map without electricity and internet

A reporter from the Arabic television channel Al-Jazeera reported from the Gaza Strip that many people had neither electricity nor internet to view the Israeli map. The map makes people confused and they do not know how to deal with it. In addition, people do not trust the Israeli armed forces. They have the feeling that no place in the Gaza Strip is safe.

Gaza resident Muneer Haduka sees not only Israel but also the Islamist Hamas, which seized control of the coastal strip by force in 2007, as responsible. "Both parties have turned us into displaced persons and beggars in our own country, without shelter or food," says the 33-year-old Palestinian. The end of the ceasefire means the continuation of "this unacceptable situation". Hamas has "committed a serious mistake against us", says Haduka. However, Israel is not fighting Hamas, but is collectively punishing the people in the Gaza Strip.

The latest Gaza war was triggered by the worst massacre in Israel's history, committed by terrorists from the Gaza Strip on October 7 in Israel near the border. More than 1200 people were killed. Around 240 hostages were taken to Gaza. Israel responded with massive air strikes, a blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched a ground offensive at the end of October.