2023-11-23 14:02:25
Pending the entry into force of the four-day ceasefire, fighting continues in Gaza where the humanitarian situation is rapidly deteriorating.
“I thank God I’m still alive.” When it can receive an internet connection, Michel (the first name has been changed given the small number of Catholics in Gaza City) sends a burst of messages and a few videos. This Tuesday, he was at the entrance to his house in Gaza City when an Israeli missile hit the neighborhood, “I received a shrapnel” he wrote. He sends a photo of his right leg wrapped in a bandage, his foot resting in a pool of blood, “there is no longer a hospital in the city. I went to see the church doctor,” he says in a voice message, his voice trembling.
“This is the fifth war I’ve been through. This one is different. I might be dead tomorrow.”
Since the start of the war, Michael, 26 years olds, took refuge with his relatives in the Catholic Church of the Holy Family in Gaza city. It is part of the small Christian community of the coastal strip. Despite calls from Israel to leave the north of the enclave, he chose to stay“we felt safe in the church” he assures, “at the beginning, I told myself that I might survive this, this is the fifth war that I have been through. But I realized that this one -this is different. I might be dead tomorrow. They made a ceasefire agreement, but here the fighting continues” he said this Thursday.
The anguish of Israeli bombs
According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, at least 13,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war. Doctors Without Borders (MSF), accuses the Israeli army of targeting civilians. This Tuesday, three caregivers, including two working for the French NGO, were killed in a strike on al-Awda hospital, one of the last functional hospital establishments in the north of the enclave.
“With my family, we split into three different groups. That way, if one of us is the target of a bomb, part of the family stays alive.”
From Gaza, only the testimonies of Palestinian journalists still alive come out – at least 40 of them were killed – and from some residents, who manage to power their phones on batteries charged in advance and connect via an eSIM card, like Nedal, who remained in Beit Lahia, “With my family, we split into three different groups. My father and my sisters went south. My mother and my brother are in Gaza City. They are refugees in UNRWA schools. That way, if one of us is the target of a bomb, part of the family remains alive.” Late last week, Nedal’s car was “destroyed in an air attack.” For four days, radio silence. Then, this single message: “I’m alive, thank you for your concern.”
1 and a half million people on the road to exile
Following IDF orders for Gazans to flee to the south, “at least 1.5 million people have taken the road to exile” in a massive displacement according to Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs at the United Nations. The testimonies on the severe lack of drinking water and food are multiplying, via the rare NGOs remaining on site.
The resourcefulness that once saved them now seems almost useless in the face of the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe.
Under a drastic Israeli-Egyptian blockade since 2007, which limits the supply of food and electricity, Gazans are used to “system D”. But the resourcefulness that once saved them now seems almost useless in the face of the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe. “We lack medicine, the food is of poor quality and above all we have very little water.we have to ration” confides Michel.
The truce provided for by the agreement concluded between Hamas and Israel might allow the entry of humanitarian aid and give a short respite for the population. Until the fighting returns.
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