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Palestinians walk among the rubble of destroyed buildings
Item information
- Author: Hanan Razek and Mohamed Ibrahim
- Scroll from BBC Arabic Service
4 hours ago
“Every time there is an attack, it feels like an earthquake is shaking the building. I feel my heart pounding with fear and my whole body shaking,” says Nadiya, who prefers not to reveal her real name in this report.
She is one of the residents of Gaza City, which has suffered almost continuous bombardment in recent days by Israeli forces acting in retaliation for Hamas’s attack on the country on Saturday.
By Tuesday afternoon (October 10th), the number of deaths in Israel was estimated at a thousand people in Gaza it was 800.
On Monday morning, Nadiya was woken up by the sound of doors and windows breaking. “The shelling began at 8 a.m. and continued until midnight. He didn’t stop for a second.”
Nadiya was the mother of two boys one aged five and the other three months old and lived in the apartment her family had just bought and decorated.
She was alone with the children while her husband a doctor with an international aid organization helped the injured.
“What happens? And when will this end?” asked his eldest son.
Nadiya says the only way to calm him down is to tell him that “hearing the sound of the explosion comes a few moments after the moment it actually happens.” This way they know they are safe, he says.
It’s the kind of knowledge no fiveyearold should acquire, but for Nadiya, it’s the best way to deal with the situation right now.
The explosions are still causing extensive damage as her threemonthold son is having seizures and refusing to eat.
In recent days, Nadiya has not left the house, where “every corner has a memory.”
But on Monday evening she heard her neighbors running down the stairs shouting: “Evacuate! Evacuate!”
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Israeli attacks caused large explosions in the Gaza Strip
The young mother hesitated for a few seconds, wondering what she should take with her. Then she began to cry in fear and despair.
She left the building with her two children but said she couldn’t recognize the neighborhood because most of the buildings were destroyed.
She is now trying to get safely to her parents’ house on the coast. “Where can you hide when death comes from heaven?” he asks.
Nadiya and other residents told the BBC that the extent of the damage in Gaza could already be considered “unprecedented.”
“Nowhere in Gaza is a safe place”
In the upscale coastal district of Rimal, 39yearold Dina sought shelter from Israeli airstrikes with her mother, father, sister and two nephews.
This is a generally quiet residential area approximately 3 km from the center of Gaza City.
On Monday afternoon, the family heard heavy shelling in the neighborhood.
“We thought we were safe at home, but suddenly the windows broke, the doors slammed and flew away,” says Dina. “Parts of the ceiling collapsed around us.”
They remained in shock in the damaged house as six more airstrikes hit the area, the family says.
Once everything began to calm down, Dina and her family fled for their lives, leaving everything behind.
They went to the hospital where they were treated for their injuries. Dina says they were lucky the wounds weren’t deep.
When they returned home to collect their belongings, it was completely destroyed.
The family is now temporarily staying with another family and Dina is still trying to recover from the shock of “losing our home, our memories and the place where we felt safe”.
“Nowhere in Gaza is safe,” she adds.
Hospitals are fighting to save lives
The director of Alshifaa Hospital in a densely populated area of the Gaza Strip, doctor Mohamed Abo Suleima, described the situation as “terrible”.
“At least 850 people were killed and more than 4,000 injured,” he said.
Since Israel cut off Gaza’s power supply, the hospital has relied on generators. The facility’s energy is only enough to continue operations for three more days, says Abo Suleima.
Since Israel announced a complete blockade of Gaza, desalinated water is now in short supply in hospitals.
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Dina Faisal sent these photos of her garden in the Rimal district previously considered one of the safest places in Gaza before and after the Israeli airstrikes
Doctor Abo Suleima says his team is prioritizing the use of drinking water only in “lifesaving cases,” while other departments in the hospital have had to close.
The doctor fears for the safety of his patients, but also his team he says ambulances have been shot at and a doctor died on the way to the hospital.
According to the United Nations Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA), mass displacement has increased rapidly in the last 24 hours, with more than 187,000 Gazans fleeing their homes in search of refuge.
As the bombing continues, the agency has managed to house 137,500 people, but fears it will soon reach full capacity.
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A destroyed building in the Rimal district of Gaza City
Empty shops
Ishaq, 27, lived in Shujaiyya neighborhood with his elderly mother, father, sisterinlaw and five children.
After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country would enter a “long and difficult war” in retaliation for Saturday’s Hamas attacks, Ishaq and his family sensed what was to come.
They gathered their most valuable belongings and sought shelter in the city center with a small bag each.
Along the way, the family of 20 tried to stock up on essentials such as groceries, but store shelves were already almost empty as many Gazans rushed to buy groceries and other staples upon hearing of Saturday’s attacks.
The family eventually hid with other families in the air raid shelter of a residential building in the center. “We were there for 48 hours without electricity or water,” says Ishaq.
Then on Monday evening he received a message from the Israeli army asking him to vacate the building. The family’s escape was only illuminated by the flares of the air raids. “All we could see around us was the rubble of buildings.”
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Men among the rubble of a bombed site in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City
They walked to one of the generally quieter residential areas of the city center, but soon discovered that “most of the buildings there had already been razed to the ground.”
Ishaq and his family have been hiding in the dark ground floor of a partially destroyed building along with ten other families for more than twelve hours.
“We live in absolute fear of what the next few hours will bring and we pray for safety,” says Ishaq.
The family still doesn’t know what to do or where to go.
(No residents the BBC spoke to wanted their image used in this report.)