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‘We’ve lost 80 percent of our capabilities’: Palestinian Civil Defence
Mahmoud Basal of the Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza says there are no medical services or humanitarian aid being provided to displaced people in the northern Gaza Strip.
“We have lost 80 percent of our capabilities, and no one is responding to the appeals we make to international institutions,” the spokesman said.
Palestinians in northern Gaza forced to flee by foot
Shazia Arshad, the head of communications at Islamic Relief, spoke to Al Jazeera about what the charity’s teams are reporting from northern Gaza. She said that, despite having nowhere safe to go, Palestinians are being forced to evacuate by foot from the north of the Strip as there are severe fuel shortages.
She said the charity is able to distribute some aid in central and southern Gaza but is unable to replenish the dwindling stockpiles due to the block on aid coming through the borders. She said Palestinians all over the Strip have been struggling with food shortages for more than six months.
“Every day, there are families there who are struggling to not only feed their children but also to feed themselves,” Arshad said. “We’re talking about sick, wounded people.”
Displaced Palestinians evacuate from the Tall al-Zaatar camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday
Israeli forces order Palestinians to evacuate Jabalia, Beit Lahiya, central Rafah
Thousands of Palestinians have been forced to flee from across Gaza, including Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Rafah, after Israeli military ramped up offensive in the Palestinian enclave. “It was a very difficult night,” said Abdel-Kareem Radwan, a 48-year-old Palestinian from Jabaliya. He said they could hear intense and constant bombing since midday on Saturday. “This is madness.”
First responders with the Palestinian Civil Defense said they were unable to respond to multiple calls for help from both areas, as well as from Rafah.
Last week Israel issued evacuation orders for people in eastern Rafah, ordering them to move west towards the “humanitarian zone” of al-Mawasi, a crowded tent camp on the coast. Over the past seven months, Israel has repeatedly issued evacuation orders for Palestinians in the besieged enclave including critically ill patients from hospitals, often with unclear instructions.
On October 13 the Israeli army ordered all civilians in Gaza City and in the north to evacuate south of Wadi Gaza within 24 hours. In December Israel issued evacuation orders again for residents of the Bureij refugee camp and other central Gaza areas and ordered them to move to Deir el-Balah.
The United Nations’ agency for Palestinian refugees, the main provider of aid in Gaza, said 300,000 people have fled Rafah since the operation began there. Most are heading to the heavily damaged nearby city of Khan Younis or al-Mawasi, where some 450,000 people are already living in squalid conditions.
Some families have been displaced as many as five times.
Rescuers unable to reach 16 family members trapped under rubble in Zeitoun: Civil defence
Gaza’s civil defence says its teams are unable to access the Jabalia refugee camp and Gaza City in northern Gaza, which Israel has hit with a new round of air attacks.
“The direct and deliberate Israeli targeting of civil defence crews prevents us from reaching some of the targeted places in the Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City,” spokesman Mahmoud Basal told the Anadolu news agency.
He said the teams were unable to reach 16 members of a family still trapped under the rubble of a house in Zeitoun. “The Israeli army is targeting innocent civilians in the neighbourhoods of Gaza and the northern Gaza Strip, most of whom are women and children,” he said, adding that rescue workers are not spared from the attacks.
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