With improvised white flags and sometimes with their hands raised, inhabitants of Loop They fled this Tuesday towards the south of the Palestinian territory among corpses and Israeli troops, following the orders of the Jewish State.
“It was terrifying“, said Wave al Ghulwho like thousands of other civilians, fled the incessant Israeli bombings that have been crushing the territory for a month.
“We raised our hands and kept walking. There were so many of us, we carried white flags”, he described to AFP.
:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/75GVTQ3SRFAXHMUB77EN62HV3E.jpg "Gazans on foot flee Israeli bombings with white flags and hands raised 1")
Palestinians fleeing Gaza City to southern areas travel on a road on November 7, 2023. (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)
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The war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamaswhich has ruled the Strip since 2007, has forced more than 1.5 million Gazans to flee their homes, according to the UN. 2.4 million people live in the 362 km2 territory.
With one of her children in her arms, Amira al Sakani He recalled the leaflets dropped by the Israeli army, ordering civilians to flee to the south.
“We arrive south from the center of Loop walking“, said. “I didn’t expect the road to be so long.”he added.
Along the way, Sakani said he saw “bodies of martyrs, some torn to pieces”. “We want peace, enough is enough, we are tired, we want a happy future”, he insisted.
According to Hamas, more than 10,3000 people, including more than 4,200 children, died in the Gaza Strip since the start of the Israeli bombings.
The airstrikes were launched in response to the Islamist group’s bloody incursion into Israel on October 7, which left 1,400 dead, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities.
MORE INFORMATION: Israel says it is fighting in the center of Gaza City for the first time in decades
The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahuhas since vowed to annihilate Hamas.
Sakani said that his children already know how to identify the bombs. “They tell me: ‘Mom, it’s dangerous, I don’t want bombings’”.
The fleeing Gazans carried few belongings and some carried their children in their arms. Others were advancing along the road in wheelchairs, AFP journalists noted.
“It was truly horrible”
Haitham Noureddine He said he walked four kilometers with his mother and other relatives before arriving at the refugee camp in BureijIn the south.
He told AFP that they left their house located near the Al Shifa hospital in the city of Loop by the incessant bombings. Like Sakani, they saw decomposed bodies on the road.
The Israeli military claims that they have surrounded the Gaza Citybut they will let civilians flee south.
But the tally of victims shows that there is no safe place. According to the enclave’s Health Ministry, nearly 3,600 people also died in southern and central Gaza.
ALSO SEE: Israel commemorates October 7 attack in silence and tears
Hatim Abu Riashwho fled with a cane, still remembers how afraid he was of walking in front of the Israeli forces.
“Next to the soldiers, next to the weapons, next to the tanks (…) it was truly horrible”he said, after fleeing the Jabalia refugee camp, which was bombed several times.
“We are not terrorists, we are civilians, we want to live in peace”he added.
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