The residents are wondering if there is any safe place in Gaza
The Gaza Enclave Under Siege: The Story of Israeli Occupation, Hunger, Explosions and Disassembly
The enclave is under siege. Israel has cut off food, water, fuel and electricity in retaliation for the attack Hamas carried out in Israel’s southern towns. The territory’s main power plant ran out of fuel Wednesday, plunging Gaza’s 2.3 million residents into darkness.
No electricity means no internet or connection to the outside world. Sewage is flowing into Gaza’s streets and waste treatment facilities need electricity. The water supply has been cut. When I drove south on Monday, I saw a huge group of people at five UN schools-turned-shelters. Dread grows inside me, as I know the worst is yet to come.
Many of the fighters who breached those walls are probably just a few years older than Ali; many of them were born during the second intifada. Their entire experience has been Israeli military occupation, siege and devastating military assault upon assault in an enclave of 140 square miles, with unemployment and poverty rates of approximately 50 percent. This is the history, and these are the conditions that have shaped so many in Gaza, not a justification. Israel helped to create these fighters by starving them.
Israel has already begun large-scale retaliatory airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, killing hundreds of people and laying waste to sections of the territory. That is likely to intensify.
Since U.S. government employees are not allowed to travel to Gaza, the State Department cannot provide “routine or emergency services” to Americans there. Right now no one can get in or out.
The Biden administration is urging Israel — publicly and privately — to get humanitarian supplies into Gaza. It’s trying to secure the release of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas and includes an unknown number of Americans.
He moved to the U.S seven years ago, but hadn’t returned to Gaza since he was a teenager. Abuzayda and her husband, who is American, had gone back and forth about when exactly to visit.
She said that they changed their tickets many times before coming to Gaza. “And our short vacation just turned into a nightmare.”
Abuzayda, her husband Abood and their one-and-a-half year old son Yousef traveled from Massachusetts for what was supposed to be a two-week trip. They don’t know when they’ll be able to go home — and not for lack of trying.
Abuzayda told Morning Edition’s Leila Fadel that she called the U.S. embassy for help multiple times a day starting immediately after the attack on Saturday. When she asked if they had any updates, they told her they didn’t. She tried to get in touch with the embassy in Cairo.
She said they told them we’re running out of milk, diapers, and they weren’t doing anything. “And in the meantime they keep posting stuff about the U.S. citizens in Israel. Every five minutes they remind the people in Israel to leave.
Major US airlines have stopped flights in and out of the country, making it difficult for many others to leave. The total number is unknown, but New York Rep. Mike Lawler said his district alone has “hundreds of constituents in Israel trying to get home.”
The U.S. increased the travel advisory for Israel and the West Bank on Wednesday to level three, or “reconsider travel.” The advisory for Gaza remains at level four, “do not travel.”
Abuzayda, who is staying at her parents’ house with other relatives, said her sister-in-law and her three kids had tried to cross the Rafah border, but they had to turn back after it came under an Israeli airstrike.
“It’s not safe inside or outside, but it’s a nightmare,” a mother tells her son in the crowded market
She said it’s not safe inside or outside. The markets themselves are running low on supplies. She is trying to make the most of her left items so she can keep Yousef safe and happy.
She said it was the hardest thing to hide your fear and show your positive side to her son. He doesn’t know what he’s seeing and he thinks it’s fireworks. And every time I tell him, while I’m crying, ‘okay mommy, clap clap this is a fireworks, it’s nothing.’ Sometimes he will jump, he will be scared and freaking out if I’m not next to him.”
The fight against Israel has complicated past with Hamas, and why it’s important for the Middle East to follow the lead in a war against Israel
She said, ” please save us.” “Please. I got my one-and-a-quarter year old after six times of IVF. We have been trying to reach the embassy. Nobody’s helping, nobody’s getting back to us. Please save us.
Israel has had a complicated past with Hamas — at certain times simply hoping to contain the extremist group, at other times attacking the group, and even seemingly acquiescing to its control of Gaza, some experts say. It has fought war with the group since 2007, most recently in 2021.
It is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the U.S. and a number of other Western countries. The Secretary of State told reporters in Israel that there was only one agenda for Hamas, to destroy Israel and kill Jews.
The military wing is currently overseen by Marwan Issa, reportedly born in a Gaza Strip refugee camp, and Mohammed Deif, who is said to be the mastermind of the latest assault on Israel. Israel tried to kill Deif.
Hamas wanted to resist Israeli occupation and to retaliate for the raid on Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem in 2021, they said before the latest attack on Israel. The conditions in the Gaza Strip have worsened since the blockade was imposed. Gazans depend on aid because they live in poverty. Unemployment is high.
Ray Takeyh, a senior fellow in Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that the problem for Israelis going back to assuming power in Gaza isHamas. The Israelis have different ways of dealing with it. They’ve had a blockade. They have tried to isolate it periodically. Military incursions have been taking place between the two parties.
The strike by Hamas could be a benchmark for others to follow in their fight against Israel. “They were able to capture people and kill Israelis in a way they never had before,” he says. This will inspire people in the Middle East and people on the West Bank.
According to a former Pentagon official who now is a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, Hamas probably didn’t expect the assault to cause an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank. The hostages that Hamas seized during the operation are a means to an end that give the extremists breathing space to try to negotiate the release of some or all of the thousands of Palestinians in Israeli jails.
Dennis Jett, professor of international affairs at Penn State University, believes that Hamas learned a lesson after abducting an Israeli soldier. Five years later, Shalit was turned over in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian and Arab-Israeli prisoners held by Israel.
The majority of the Palestinians surveyed said that Hamas is the most deserving of representing and leading the Palestinians. By contrast, just 14% said the same of Fatah.
Some Israelis feel that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has weakened the Palestinians by his policies in the West Bank.
Panikoff says Israel believed it had weakened Hamas and limited its potential for continued violence. He says that Israel had a policy of mowing the grass. Going after Hamas, getting a lot of the rockets, [going after] their militant leaders, either killing them or capturing them.”
Takeyh says Israel hoped that by relaxing the embargo and giving more work permits to Hamas, it would encourage the people of Gaza to return for work.
Barakeh tells NPR that the planning and execution of the battle were kept a secret. The zero hour was confidential and no one in Hamas did not know about it.
Israel thought it was containing a “war-weary Hamas,” while all the while Hamas fighters were “being trained and drilled, often in plain sight,” the news agency said, quoting an unidentified Hamas source.
The wall was built with an Iron Dome system, and it failed, because they concentrated a lot of effort in suppressing people in the West Bank. The Iron Dome was overwhelmed.
Defending the Qassam Brigades in the Gaza Strip, and Israel as a threat to the safety of the Gazans
Iran denied involvement in the attack. Barakeh says that Hamas has support from Iran and that it does not deny. we don’t take orders from anyone. In Hamas, specifically the Qassam Brigades, we were the ones who planned this operation, determined the zero hour, and once the operation began, we immediately informed all allies and friends. There was no prior coordination regarding this operation.”
Panikoff believes that Hamas would probably have required “Iranian acquiescence” for such an operation, but says it’s unclear whether Tehran would have helped with specific planning.
“Israel is going to continue to attack anything that it can identify as related to Hamas,” he adds. In that climate, he says, there’s almost no prospect of a diplomatic solution.
Takeyh says Israel “seems to be preparing for a ground attack” and that its intent will likely be to dismantle Hamas altogether, meaning thousands more Gazans will lose their lives and their homes.
Who governs Gaza? What will happen to it? He says that they would want to cause a change in Hamas, but not to govern Gaza themselves.
The infrastructure, already weakened by a 16-year blockade and four previous wars since 2008, is now being crushed. Palestinians say they have never seen it before.
Last night he found himself stranded in the darkness outside the main hospital. Abu Zarefeh says it was too dark for people to move, and fuel is running out for transportation.
Abu Zarfeh’s story as a response to the Israeli-Israel conflict: “What punishment are we doing here?” A Palestinian journalist in Gaza
I agree that there are many Palestinians who don’t agree with this. Missiles are being fired at my children on the entire nation of Israel in their homes. He said while speaking to reporters that they have to defend themselves.
The journalist said his area is unsafe to return to now. He’s lost touch with some of his children because communications were cut off.
“This conflict is between Hamas and Israel. So why is Israel destroying our homes? It’s destroying all the neighborhoods? Abu Zarfeh made the statement. “This is punishment.”
His story is the story of every family in Gaza right now. They fled one bombarded area only to find the airstrikes following them again and again.
“I took them from the house, and I started to just think, where am I going to take them? Where am I going to hide them? Is there a safe place in Gaza? he said over a scratchy phone line.
“Everybody is thinking about how to stay alive,” he said. “We are human, we are part of this world. We are part of this civilization. Don’t forget us.
Israel warns more than 1 million people to evacuate northern Gaza: a reaction of Hamas on the Gaza Strip left by Israel after the Gaza War
TEL AVIV, Israel — The fighting between Israel and Hamas entered a seventh day on Friday with fears of a ground offensive growing stronger following an Israeli order to evacuate the northern region of the Gaza Strip.
As it presses its military campaign against Hamas, Israel ordered its citizens to leave Gaza and there is now anticipation of a coming Israeli ground assault in Gaza. Israel has been bombarding Gaza for a week in revenge for last weekend’s deadly Hamas incursion into Israel. Israel’s military hasn’t yet made a decision on a ground assault.
Within hours of the order, Israel faced opposition, both from Hamas and on the international stage. “It is impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,” the UN said.
The main hospital is in the evacuate zone, and it’s not easy for people to go south, according to Human Rights Watch.
Jan Egeland said that the forcible transfer of people in northern Gaza would be considered a war crime by the Israeli military.
Meanwhile, the Hamas leadership called on Palestinians to ignore the Israeli order. Iyad Al-Bozom, spokesman for the Hamas Interior ministry, said that Israel wanted to displace them from their land, so they asked the citizens of northern Gaza and Gaza City to remain in their homes.
Source: Israel warns more than 1 million people to evacuate northern Gaza
Gaza and Jordan: UNRWA’s response to the Hamas attacks and the U.S.-Israel diplomatic push in the coming days
UNRWA said early Friday that its operations center and international staff have moved to the southern part of Gaza.
It remains unclear how hospitals and clinics in northern Gaza, treating the a stream of wounded victims from near-constant bombings, could be evacuated. Hospitals in Gaza are at full capacity.
The order comes as the U.S. ramps up its diplomatic and military support for Israel in the aftermath of the recent attacks by Hamas that killed over 1,300 people.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is expected to arrive in Israel on Friday, following Thursday’s arrival of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Earlier Friday, Blinken met with King Abdullah II in Amman, Jordan, and was meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the Jordanian capital. As the conflict in Gaza escalates, Tony Blinken is going to visit five Arab states over the next few days.
The U.S. diplomatic efforts come as concerns are growing the chaos — the worst outbreak of violence in Israel and Gaza in recent memory — could spread to the occupied West Bank and different countries across the Middle East.
At least 27 U.S. citizens were killed in the Hamas attacks and 15 Americans are currently unaccounted for, a White House spokesperson said Thursday. Charter flights to evacuate U.S. citizens who remain in Israel will begin Friday. Other countries, such as China, France and the United Kingdom, have also reported citizens killed or missing in the conflict.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that his country will launch a “massive offensive” in Gaza Strip on Saturday in response to recent terror attacks by Hamas. Netanyahu made the remark as Israeli forces began their seventh day of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip. At least 1,200 people have been killed in Israel-Hamas fighting so far, according to Johns Hopkins University tracker.