Mohammad Matar worked for years building pipelines that transported water across the Gaza Strip – from northern Beit Lahia to southern Rafah. Now he barely has access to water himself.
Mr. Matar, a 35-year-old civil engineer, was reached by telephone Thursday evening in Gaza City, where he and his family have decided to remain even as Israeli ground forces continue their relentless assault on Hamas.
In a city increasingly cut off from the rest of the world, Mr. Matar described days of despair and fear.
“I’ve seen a lot of horror movies, but I’ve never seen a horror movie like this,” he said. “I’m sure what you see on TV is not even 5 percent of what we experience.”
Mr Matar says his family, like many others in Gaza, is struggling with food shortages. They haven’t eaten vegetables in almost eight days and he can’t remember the last time he ate chicken or meat. Most days, his family cooks instant noodles over charcoal, and while one package usually lasts a week, he rations them so that each package lasts up to 20 days.
“We are trying to preserve what we have until the situation changes – until this sad story is over,” Mr Matar said.
The Israeli military has for weeks ordered residents of the northern Gaza Strip to leave the country for their protection, warning that those who do not “could be viewed as a member of a terrorist organization.” In the past week alone, as Israel began imposing daily pauses in fighting, an estimated 50,000 to 80,000 residents fled south on foot, according to UNRWA, the U.N. agency that helps Palestinians.
Videos posted by the on social media Israel Defense Forces show families, some with their hands raised, walking down a main thoroughfare as Israeli soldiers watch them from behind military vehicles.
However, according to UNRWA Communications Director Juliette Touma, they remain vulnerable even after their escape. “This assumption that the south is safe is wrong,” she said in an interview, calling Israel’s order “forced displacement” that sent droves of people marching south “dehydrated, exhausted and afraid.”
“There is no safe place in Gaza,” Ms. Touma said.
Ms Touma said it was impossible to estimate how many residents still lived in Gaza City due to limited communications and disruption to aid deliveries, adding that the north had become the “most dangerous area in the world”.
As Israeli troops engage in street battles with Hamas and their relentless attacks engulf more of the city, Mr. Matar and his family have remained.
“This is our fate,” he said. “But we hope that God will change the situation.”
For ten years, Mr. Matar worked on water infrastructure projects for Saqqa and Khoudary Contracting, a Palestinian construction company based in the West Bank. He said his projects, including the construction of water tanks and associated distribution systems, were now destroyed and estimated it would take months to a year to restore water supplies in the Gaza Strip after fighting ends.
As for the moment, he said, “You have a privilege if you find water to wash your hands or wash your face.”
On Friday, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said Israel’s siege on the Gaza Strip – which leaves the two million residents trapped in the enclave with limited access to food, water, medicine and fuel – had the potential to trigger a “much larger catastrophe.” “, including hunger.
There is no fuel to run the underground pumps in Gaza. And because there are no water bottles to be found in the shops, Mr. Matar has to rely on supplies from his neighbors.
“I just grab a couple of buckets and have them fill them with water for me,” he said. “We don’t even know if this water is healthy or not.”
Aside from the fear of thirst and hunger, Mr. Matar’s main concern is the physical safety of his wife and two daughters, ages 3 and 8, who are clinging to his side amid the explosions. He tries to distract her with games and laughter, even if only temporarily.
“When she hears the rockets in her sleep, my three-year-old flinches,” Mr Matar said. “She asked me, ‘Why is this happening?’ But what should I say?”
Mr. Matar is finding it difficult to fall asleep these days and is unsure whether he will wake up the next morning.
“I sit and pray with my wife all the time,” he said. “What is happening is more than unusual.”
He added: “I want this article to reach people who have the power to stop this war.”
Abeer Pamuk contributed from San Francisco.
— Yousur Al-Hlou reports from Cairo