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UN official in Gaza says people "remain desperate" as war hits one-year mark
One year since the October 7 attacks, people in Gaza remain desperate for relief from Israel’s unrelenting offensive, a United Nations official in the enclave told CNN.
“People here remain desperate. Hostages remain in Gaza, their families wait for them,” Georgios Petropoulos, head of the UN humanitarian affairs (UNOCHA) suboffice in Gaza, told CNN’s Rosemary Church.
“Even at 4 a.m. this morning, we were woken up by renewed bombing here in Rafah, Gaza … From jets buzzing, shelling and tank fire. The only thing that’s left in Gaza, would say is hope. Our supplies are almost zero.”
The Israeli military launched a new offensive in northern Gaza this weekend, days before the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks, which killed over 1,200 people.
The war in Gaza – which Israel says is aimed at destroying Hamas – has killed more than 41,000 people and triggered a dire humanitarian crisis.
Petropoulos said almost 100,000 are wounded in the ongoing war and an unknown number of people – possibly in the thousands – remain under rubble across Gaza.
"There’s fighting around, there’s no safe locations.”
There are an estimated 430,000 people left in northern Gaza, Petropoulos said, and not many of those displaced are motivated to move south due to the lack of supplies all over.
“If 430,000 people are pushed to come south, I have to be very clear – no idea where we will put them, what we will give them to eat, and how we will shelter these people.”
The intensified bombardment and the advance of the Israeli forces means that around 50,000 people have been displaced in the last 24 hours from the northern communities of Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia and Jabalya, Petropoulos said.
"Should we kill ourselves?": Displaced Palestinians wonder where to go after year of war
A Palestinian man speaks to CNN in Jabalya, northern Gaza, on October 6
Several Palestinian fathers in Gaza told CNN their families cannot face another wave of displacement, as Israeli forces launched renewed aerial and ground attacks in northern Gaza on Sunday.
CNN footage from Jabalya showed boys riding bicycles and vendors manning thinly stocked market stalls yesterday. Echoes of young children filled the area as women walked wearily along the dusty pathway. The Israeli military told people to evacuate Gaza’s north to the Israeli-designated “humanitarian area” of Al-Mawasi in Khan Younis.
But residents say they are wary of attempting to flee the besieged neighborhood in search of refuge, citing numerous Israeli attacks targeting Hamas militants in Israeli-designated “safe zones."
"I don’t know where to go,” one man with grey stubble told CNN. “What did we do? We have children, we have women, we have the elderly. Where should we all go? What should we do? Should we kill ourselves?
“I will die and not go to the south,” he said, adding that he was trying to protect 20 other relatives from Israel’s bombardment. “We are resisting and will not leave the north, even if I die here.”
The Israeli offensive in Gaza since the Hamas-led October 7 attacks has displaced 1.9 million people, according to the UN. On Sunday, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees warned that the enclave “has become a place unfit for humans,” citing destruction, hunger and disease
"They have humiliated us and lied to us… My entire family lives in the south in a tent, and they are not safe at all,” Mohammad Ibrahim, a father-of-two in Jabalya, told CNN over the phone.
The history teacher said he would rather stay with his two sons at their home, preferring to die “with dignity.”
“There are many like me who will stay in Jabalya. We have no friends, relatives, or real safe shelter, and since death is the same, we will remain.”
Khader Al-Za’anoun of Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, contributed reporting.
