“It seems they want to send us to Sinai, Egypt. I also read that there are Israeli ministers who want to exterminate us all or turn Gaza into a giant parking lot. “I don’t know what’s next.” On the other end of the phone, Salah Ahmed sighs in pain. Since October 7, the 41-year-old father and his three children, aged 8 to 15, have had to move three times to save their lives after their home in Gaza City was bombed. Now they are in Rafah, at the southern end of the Gaza Strip, where more than a million people already live, according to the UN, in a region previously home to about 250,000 people. And every day more families are arriving, fleeing bombings in areas further north.
“Everything is overcrowded, there is not a single square meter without people. It's something unimaginable. And the number of displaced people continues to increase,” explains Samir Zaqut from the Palestinian NGO Al Mezan on the phone from Rafah, before his story is interrupted by a very loud roar. “They're bombing something nearby,” he explains, showing little surprise. “The people of Rafah no longer have a place to sleep and spend the night on the streets, wrapped in plastic, not even in tents. The people are sick and very weak. They kill us even without bombing us. It's terrible. And we have no other choice,” he adds. As UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths denounced on Friday, Gaza has become “simply an uninhabitable place,” “a place of death and hopelessness,” whose residents “face daily threats as the world watches.” It is currently difficult to find anyone in Gaza who has not been forced to leave their home at least once in the last three months.
They kill us even without bombing us. It's terrible. And we have no choice.
Samir Zaqut, Al Mezan
According to UNRWA [agencia de la ONU para los refugiados palestinos]1.9 million people, or 85% of the Gaza Strip's population, had to move. Rafah, located on the Egyptian border and by the sea, is the last place they can escape to. The city has been spared for the time being from the massive bombing, but the living conditions of so many people in such a small area are difficult to imagine: an overcrowded and flooded city with tents and makeshift shelters, with hungry and sick people and children who are still barefoot in the cold and rain , it is difficult to get food and clean water, and fear of the future darkens the mood even more.
“Nobody knows what’s next. The Israelis want to expel all or almost all of Gaza's residents, but I'm not sure they can do that either. Maybe that’s why there is hope for negotiations,” admits Zaqut.
Since October 7, when Israeli bombings of the Gaza Strip began after Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis, more than 22,000 Palestinians have died violently and at least 7,000 lie under the rubble, according to the Health Ministry. 70% of them are women and children.
Displaced Palestinians in the tents where they live in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, January 3, 2024. IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA (Portal)
Survive
Najwa, who did not want to give her full name, left her home in central Gaza 15 days ago and settled in her son-in-law's family home in Rafah with her husband and three children. “To be honest, I don’t even know how I feel. It's like all feelings are frozen. My priority is to survive today and I don't think about anything else, just that the day goes by and we stay alive,” he explains via WhatsApp.
The family, crammed into a small apartment, struggles every day to find food and water. “We found just a few basic things: there is no fruit, the only vegetables for sale are tomatoes, potatoes and eggplants, there are no cookies or coffee for sale and meat is virtually impossible to find and pay for,” describes Najwa.
My priority is to survive today and I don't think about anything else, only that the day passes and we stay alive
Najwa, displaced person from Gaza
Zaqut adds that every small act of daily life takes hours and becomes a huge effort. “Nothing works. You have to bake bread because it's difficult to find a bakery, but flour, like all staple foods, costs six or seven times more. And when you get it, it turns out there's no gas either, so you have to “You have to make a fire. There is also no water and we have to walk for an hour to get a gallon because there are no vehicles or space to move on many streets in Rafah,” he concludes.
Despite everything, both are aware that their families are among the privileged because they have a roof over their heads and minimal hygiene. “There are a lot of people outside and there are no tents or blankets for everyone. The people in Rafah are hungry and cold,” describes Najwa. “And no one knows what’s next. They push us to the limits. Maybe later they'll throw us into Sinai. “Everyone is waiting, nobody knows anything, we only hear terrible rumors,” he says.
While in October and November the majority of Gazans surveyed insisted that their desire was to stay in Gaza and return home as quickly as possible, as was the case during previous offensives, their discourse has changed with the Intensification of bombings changed. “I want someone to get me out of here. Do you think people want to stay in the middle of this destruction after losing so much?” Najwa asks.
In addition, a large proportion of the people crowded into Rafah no longer have anywhere to return to. “We were living in the UK because my wife had a PhD scholarship, but a year ago we wanted to return to Gaza. It is the land of our fathers and ours. But now we don't have a house anymore and I just hope that Rafah doesn't come under massive attack and that this ends. My little eight-year-old son can't even go to the toilet on his own and barely sleeps. “I just want them to see their mother again, but the hardest thing is that I can’t do anything for them,” explains Ahmed. The war surprised his wife in Europe, alone and pregnant with their fourth child, while she was in Gaza completing the documents to complete her doctoral thesis remotely.
“Perhaps the Israeli army, when it thinks it is done in our areas, will order us to return to our destroyed homes. I don’t even know which state the mine is in,” explains Talal, a primary school teacher in Jabalia refugee camp and currently displaced in Rafah, asking not to use his full name.
Inability to save lives
“Even if the situation persists, Rafah is no longer viable. It's like a huge camp where the situation is impossible to describe and imagine. If we fail to stop this, other societal norms of survival will begin to break down and there will be devastating consequences because people will no longer be able to endure it and will no longer be able to move because they are at the limit. “We need an immediate and lasting ceasefire,” stressed Nicholas Papachrysostomou, emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders (MSF), who spent five weeks in southern Gaza between November and December, in an interview with this newspaper. For example, the person in charge recalled witnessing the looting of an NGO truck by a group of Gazans who apologized but said they were very hungry.
“It is very difficult to understand the scale, severity and continuity of the attacks facing the population of Gaza. It is also surprising that the entire international community has been watching this for three months and is already seeing it as a movie that is playing out before our eyes and we cannot achieve a ceasefire,” he added.
Gaza is a black hole, we cannot speak of humanitarian aid, but rather of a trickle of aid in an ocean of enormous need
Nicholas Papachrysostomou, Doctors Without Borders
In mid-December, MSF managed to reopen the Al-Shaboura clinic in Rafah, where it provides basic care thanks to local and expatriate staff, and managed to bring 50 tons of medical supplies to the Gaza Strip. “In one week we treated 1,500 patients. What did these people do before? For example, where have the children we treat with diarrhea gone?” asks Papachrysostomou. According to Unicef, cases of diarrhea among children under five in Gaza increased worryingly in mid-December, when around 3,200 new cases were recorded daily, compared to the 2,000 per month recorded before this escalation. “The health of children in Gaza is deteriorating rapidly,” the UN agency warned.
MSF's emergency coordinator also explained that there is currently no post-operative healing or pain management service in Gaza due to a lack of staff and resources, and that his clinic accepts patients with “very complicated” medical conditions, such as severe infections in wounds and Burns that can lead to death. Additionally, due to overcrowding, lack of hygiene and proper nutrition, as well as the cold, every second patient admitted to this medical center is currently suffering from acute respiratory infections, this official said. The WHO has reported that of Gaza's 36 hospitals, only 13 are partially functional and some actually offer very few services. Those still operating lack everything: staff, beds, anesthesia, antibiotics, fuel and water.
“Sometimes I don’t forget the faces of my colleagues from Gaza. Angry at the tragedy and saddened by the material inability to save more lives. Gaza is a black hole, we cannot speak of humanitarian aid, but rather of a trickle of aid in an ocean of enormous need,” emphasizes Papachrysostomou. “What I experienced in the five weeks I spent in Gaza is a punishment for people who don't talk about politics and have nothing to do with Hamas,” he concludes.
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