Despite Israeli threats, some families unable to leave Gaza City
Israel’s defence minister has told the roughly quarter of a million people still in Gaza City that if they do not leave, they will be considered “terrorists” or “terrorist supporters”.
This threat has sent shockwaves throughout the population. Rights groups say the threat amounts to collective punishment, criminalising civilians for simply staying in their homes.
Some families are still risking the dangerous journey [from Gaza City] to the south of the Strip. But there are others [who cannot make the journey], such as people who are elderly and sick.
And many families, fearing for the safety of their children, also believe it is impossible to leave Gaza City under the intensity of ongoing attacks. They know they might not be able to make it safely to the south of the Strip – or if they do, find an empty place to stay due to overcrowding.
So, many families right now are simply trying to survive, but the opportunity to survive in Gaza City is dwindling as Israel expands its ground operations and extensively destroys civilian infrastructure.
‘They’ve got nothing to do with this war except they’re Palestinian’
A prominent Palestinian physician has pleaded with the international community to save the people of Gaza from Israeli attacks and genocidal policies.
“This dark and grim situation needs to alert all world leaders to act now to save the lives of more than 2.2 million Palestinians stranded in this hell for the past 24 months,” Dr Khamis Elessi told Al Jazeera from Nuseirat in central Gaza.
“They’ve got nothing to do with this war except they’re Palestinians. They’ve been starved to death, and now they’re being denied medicine and a dignified healthcare system.”
He noted that, other than the 170,000 people wounded in Israeli attacks since October 2023, 350,000 suffer from chronic disease and cannot receive proper treatment because of Israel’s blockade and relentless bombardment.
Burn victims have infected wounds “with maggots coming out because of a lack of hygiene, lack of clean water, lack of antibiotics, and a lack of nutrition”, said Elessi.
“So patients cannot fight against disease and hospitals cannot care for them.”
Another child dies of malnutrition: Report
Two more people, including a child, have died of malnutrition in the past 24 hours in Gaza, according to medical sources. This brings the total number of hunger-related deaths in the enclave during the war to 457, including 152 children, the Wafa news agency reported.
In August, Cindy McCain, head of the UN’s World Food Programme, warned Gaza had reached “breaking point” and called for the urgent restoration of its network of 200 food distribution points.
Israel continues to ignore such warnings and has instead tightened its blockade on the Strip.
