GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Thousands of displaced Palestinians in northern Gaza have sought refuge in what was once the territory’s largest football arena, where families survive on little food or water as they try to stay one step ahead of Israel’s population. last offensive.
Their makeshift tents sit in the shade below the stadium seats, with clothes hanging in the July sun on the dusty, dry football pitch. Under the covered benches where players used to sit on the sidelines, Um Bashar bathes a child who is standing in a plastic tub. Applying soap to the boy’s hair, he shifts and shivers as she pours the cold water over his head, and he grips the plastic seats to steady himself.
They have been displaced several times, she said, most recently due to new Israeli operations against Hamas in the Shijaiyah neighborhood of Gaza City.
“We woke up and found tanks in front of the door,” she says. “We didn’t take anything with us, no mattress, no pillow, no clothes, nothing. Not even food.
She fled with about 70 other people to the Yarmouk Sports Stadium – just under 3 kilometers northwest of Shijaiyah, which was heavily bombed and largely empty. at the beginning of the war. Many of the people who ended up at the stadium say they have nowhere to go back.
“We left our homes,” said one man, Hazem Abu Thoraya, “and all our homes were bombed and burned, and so were all those around us.”
Hundreds of thousands of people remained in northern Gaza, despite Israeli troops having largely surrounded and isolated it. However, aid flows have improved recently and the UN said earlier this week that it is now able to to meet people’s basic needs In the north. Israel says it allows aid into Gaza and blames the UN for not doing enough to transport it.
Still, residents say deprivation and insecurity are having an increasing impact.
“There is no safe place. Security is with God,” said a displaced woman, Um Ahmad. “Fear is now felt not only among children, but also among adults. … We don’t even feel safe walking down the street.”
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