In early November, an Israeli bomb upended Mona Abdel Raheem’s life in Gaza.
The explosion destroyed her house and killed her neighbour in Jabalia, a densely populated refugee camp within the north of the enclave. Abdel Raheem had no alternative however to flee south together with her husband, sisters and grandchildren.
They have been amongst 1.1 million Palestinians who heeded Israel’s command to evacuate northern Gaza, an order that will quantity to the pressured switch of a inhabitants, which is a conflict crime.
“We left and didn’t have time to take anything from our home. Everything around us was destroyed,” Abdel Raheem, 63, informed Al Jazeera from Rafah, a metropolis within the southern Gaza Strip.
Abdel Raheem has lived by means of a number of wars however none as devastating as Israel’s present onslaught on Gaza. UN consultants, rights teams and the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice (ICJ) have all warned that Palestinians in Gaza face an actual danger of genocide except Israel halts its assaults towards them.
Since Hamas’s shock assault on Israeli communities and navy outposts on October 7, through which 1,139 folks have been killed and 240 taken captive to Gaza, Israel has retaliated by punishing the whole inhabitants of Gaza, in line with consultants and Palestinians.
Abdel Raheem recalled her exodus from northern Gaza in addition to the deaths of family members killed by Israeli bombing, which has flattened practically every little thing within the besieged enclave.
“The occupying [Israeli] forces carry responsibility for destroying all our homes and all our trees and for killing our children,” Abdel Raheem informed Al Jazeera. “Why don’t any of the Arab or European countries care about the Palestinian people? Palestine is being destroyed.”
One other Nakba?
Abdel Raheem had not been born but when 700,000 Palestinians have been expelled from their homeland to make means for the creation of Israel in 1948 – an occasion referred to in Arabic because the Nakba, or disaster. However, like all Palestinians, she grew up studying in regards to the Nakba and all the time yearned to return to her household’s village.
She by no means imagined that she would dwell by means of one other mass exodus. Nevertheless, as she was fleeing Jabalia, Abdel Raheem sensed that historical past was repeating itself.
She recalled strolling in humiliation with tons of of 1000’s of Palestinians – males, ladies and kids – previous Israeli troopers. Alongside the best way, she noticed dozens of individuals’s our bodies rotting on the street after they have been killed by Israeli shelling.
Lots of of individuals have been additionally detained at every Israeli checkpoint. The treacherous journey took days.
“As we were walking, there were people being killed by Israeli warplanes,” Abdel Raheem mentioned. “They were being killed directly in front of us.”
The expulsion of Palestinians from northern Gaza is the newest chapter of Palestinian dispossession, in line with Shatha Abdulsamad, an knowledgeable on Palestinian refugees with Al-Shabaka, a Palestinian assume tank.
“I think the Israelis are trying to finish the job that they started in the Nakba in 1948. What we are seeing in Gaza is no exception. The only exception is that the scale of the destruction is unprecedented,” she informed Al Jazeera.
Killing support staff
On November 24, Abdel Raheem acquired information that Israeli shelling killed her brother-in-law and his household in northern Gaza.
Osama was an Arabic language supervisor for the United Nations Reduction and Works Company for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which has supplied healthcare, schooling and different companies to Palestinian refugees for the reason that Nakba. Osama was killed alongside together with his son, daughter-in-law and three granddaughters.
“He didn’t have any relation with any armed organisation or Palestinian movement. He was a civilian,” Abdel Raheem mentioned.
Since October 7, Israel has killed greater than 150 UNRWA workers with its indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza. That’s the very best variety of UN workers killed in any battle for the reason that UN was based in 1945.
The killing of UNRWA workers is emblematic of Israel’s broader assault towards the help organisation.
On the identical day that the ICJ dominated it “plausible” that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, the Israeli authorities alleged that 12 UNRWA workers took half in Hamas’s October 7 assaults.
However in line with Channel 4 Information, which obtained inside Israeli intelligence paperwork, Israel supplied no proof that UNRWA workers have been concerned within the October 7 assaults.
Regardless of the dearth of proof, plenty of Israel’s Western allies – akin to Canada, the UK and america – minimize funding to UNRWA at the same time as famine looms attributable to Israel’s siege on Gaza.
“If UNRWA stops, then everything will collapse on Palestinians,” mentioned one Gaza UNRWA worker, who is just not authorised to talk to the press.
“All the requirements to sustain life will be destroyed, especially for the elderly and for children.”
By no means leaving
On the finish of January, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani travelled to Paris to fulfill intelligence officers from Israel, Egypt and the US.
They mentioned a attainable humanitarian pause whereby Hamas would launch ladies and kids held captive in change for a scale-up in humanitarian support. Steps to safe a everlasting ceasefire would comply with.
Information of the assembly reached Gaza, the place rumours unfold that an finish to the conflict was imminent. Over X (previously Twitter), movies surfaced of youngsters, aged males and youngsters dancing and celebrating the information. Abdel Raheem hoped, even praying, that the rumours have been true. However the truce has but to materialise.
We need to go house! We need to go house!”
Palestinians chant and have fun the information of a purported ceasefire settlement.
Have a look at the enjoyment on their face. Are you able to think about how crushed they’ll be if a ceasefire doesn’t come into fruition?#casefireNow pic.twitter.com/0pxO7OMg2O
— sajida afzal (@mahadabdul36) February 2, 2024
“Every day, every hour, every minute and every second, we all fear that we are going to die,” Abdel Raheem mentioned with resignation.
These fears have been compounded when Israel introduced on Friday that it was going to focus on Rafah, an space close to the Egyptian border the place about 1.8 million Palestinians like Abdel Raheem have sought shelter.
Most civilians in Rafah are staying in residential buildings or sleeping on the chilly streets in tents. Abdel Raheem and her husband are staying in a center college for ladies that’s now an UNRWA shelter
Some Israeli intelligence and authorities officers have lengthy referred to as for all Palestinians in Gaza to be expelled to Egypt. Nevertheless, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has made it clear that he wouldn’t help any transfer that would result in the everlasting displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.
Abdel Raheem mentioned that even when she might cross into Egypt, she would favor to die on her land.
“There is no way we are going to Egypt. This is our country and our land. We are Palestinian,” she mentioned.
“If we die, then we want to die here.”
