‘Nowhere safe, nowhere to go’: Palestinians suffer under relentless Israeli bombing

GAZA CITY: Termed as an “Open air prison” by former British Prime Minster David Cameron, Gaza Strip, with just 25 miles long and 3 miles wide, is the most densely populated area in the world. Over 180,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are packed into United Nations shelters as Israeli warplanes pound the tiny territory of 2.3 million people.

As Israeli warplanes started relentless bombardment, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Palestinians in Gaza to “leave”. But he didn’t say “where” since oppressed and besieged, the people of Gaza have nowhere to go.

As soon as Israeli bombs and rockets started landing, many people rushed to one of the dozens of shelters set up in schools run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza City.

But residents say there is no real escape in Gaza, which has been under a suffocating 16-year blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt. When war breaks out, as it has four times since the Hamas seized power in 2007, even United Nations facilities that are supposed to be safe zones risk becoming engulfed in the fighting. The U.N. said that an airstrike directly hit one of its shelters Sunday and damaged five other schools-turned-shelters on Monday. There was no immediate word of casualties.

The Israeli military went neighborhood to neighborhood with rapid and intensifying airstrikes, the heavy bombardments reached the heart of Gaza City, transforming the affluent neighborhood into an uninhabitable desert of craters. Rimal was also hit by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza’s bloody 2021 war, but not to this extent.

Israeli bombs that struck Gaza’s flagship Islamic University, government ministries and high-rises in Rimal, starting Monday afternoon, also blew out the windows of UN’s shelter, shattering glass everywhere.

The bombing in Rimal and the potential risks of sheltering in U.N. schools highlighted the desperate search by Gaza civilians for refuge, with the territory’s safe spaces rapidly shrinking. There are no civilian bomb shelters in Gaza. Ahead of the Israeli military’s warning to civilians on Monday that Rimal would be hit, families staggered into the streets with whatever belongings they could carry and without a destination.

In a briefing Tuesday, Israeli army spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht suggested Palestinians should try to leave through the Gaza border crossing with Egypt — a seemingly impractical suggestion.

So far, the Gaza toll stands at about 700 dead and thousands wounded, according to Gaza health officials, a punishing response to the militant group’s attack that has killed over 900 Israelis. More than 150 Israeli civilians and soldiers have been taken captive.

Israeli military has been carrying out airstrikes in crowded residential neighborhoods, inevitably harming civilians and civilian infrastructure. Hamas authorities on Monday reported the destruction of seven mosques and 15 civilian homes that killed many members of the same family.

The Israeli defense minister also has ordered a “complete siege” on the already blockaded Gaza Strip, vowing to block food, water and fuel from the territory.

Residents described a dangerous dance around the heavy Israeli bombing — fleeing home, crashing at relatives’ apartments, fleeing again to U.N. schools and then starting all over again in an attempt to find some sense of safety.

“It is better than dying,” said 37-year-old Muhammad al-Bishawi, exhausted as he hustled between a U.N. shelter in Gaza City and his home in Beit Lahiya to secure food and other supplies before returning.