Um Yosef Dadalan, ibu kepada empat anak, melarikan diri dari Deir Al Balah di tengah Semenanjung Gaza ke Khan Younis, selepas kawasan itu diserang Israel.
Perintah pemindahan tiba-tiba Israel pada Ahad bermakna dia dan keluarganya terpaksa bermalam di jalanan.
“Saya tidak dapat mencari tempat untuk pergi,” katanya kepada The National selepas berlepas ke kawasan Al Mawasi.
“Saya tidak mahu melarikan diri tetapi apabila pengeboman semakin kuat saya memutuskan untuk pergi kerana anak-anak saya ketakutan,” kata Um Yosef, 35.
Pegawai berkata dia adalah salah seorang daripada lebih 250,000 rakyat Palestin yang telah dipindahkan secara paksa dari Deir Al Balah sejak 16 Ogos, apabila tentera Israel mula mengeluarkan arahan pengusiran di sana. Tetapi kerana tiada tempat untuk pergi dan tiada wang, ramai rakyat Gaza terkandas.
“Sangat sukar untuk mencari tempat dan saya masih belum berjaya mendapatkan khemah lagi,” kata Um Yosef.
Israel pada Ahad mengarahkan orang ramai meninggalkan bahagian Deir Al Balah, yang sebelum ini ditetapkan sebagai zon kemanusiaan.
Pada Isnin, tentera Israel berkata tentera terus “membongkar infrastruktur pengganas” di pinggir bandar.
Sehingga 88.5 peratus daripada Gaza telah diletakkan di bawah perintah pengusiran sejak permulaan perang antara Israel dan Hamas pada Oktober, menurut PBB, memaksa kira-kira 1.8 juta orang untuk berlindung di dalam apa yang dipanggil zon kemanusiaan, yang merangkumi kira-kira 41 km persegi dan tidak mempunyai perkhidmatan asas.
Jens Laerke, jurucakap Pejabat Penyelarasan Hal Ehwal Kemanusiaan Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (Ocha) pada Selasa berkata “hanya 11 peratus daripada wilayah jalur selamat tidak berada di bawah arahan pemindahan … jadi kami cuba bekerjasama dengan nombor itu dan teruskan operasi”.
Laerke menyatakan bahawa sejumlah 16 perintah pemindahan telah dikeluarkan untuk Ogos sahaja, menimbulkan pergolakan bagi penduduk Gaza yang telah berpindah beberapa kali.
Perintah yang sama juga telah merangkumi hab bantuan PBB di Deir Al Balah.
“Ia menjejaskan 15 premis yang menempatkan pekerja bantuan PBB dan NGO, empat gudang PBB, hospital Al Aqsa, dua klinik, tiga telaga, satu takungan air dan satu loji penyahgaraman,” katanya kepada wartawan di Geneva. Sambil menambah bahawa pemindahan berlaku “pada notis sangat singkat dan dalam keadaan berbahaya”.
Walaupun beribu-ribu telah pergi, ramai yang telah berpindah beberapa kali mengatakan mereka lebih suka mempertaruhkan nyawa mereka daripada berpindah lagi.
Mohammed Abu Hassira, 35, enggan pergi kerana “tiada tempat untuk pergi atau wang untuk berpindah”.
“Tiada maruah tinggal di mana-mana jadi saya lebih suka tinggal di sini dan tidak berpindah,” katanya kepada The National.
Abu Hassira telah dipindahkan enam kali semasa perang semasa. Dia telah bergerak merentasi semua kawasan di selatan Semenanjung Gaza. “Sampai masa anda berasa muak,” katanya.
“Tiada tempat yang bersih atau sesuai yang menyediakan perkhidmatan perubatan mahupun makanan.”
Sehingga 30,000 orang setiap km persegi
Penduduk Gaza tinggal 30,000 hingga satu kilometer persegi di Al Mawasi, satu lagi zon kemanusiaan, kata PBB.
Dalam temu bual baru-baru ini dengan radio RTE penyiar Ireland, Louise Wateridge, pegawai komunikasi untuk agensi PBB untuk pelarian Palestin (UNRWA) berkata keadaan itu “malapetaka”.
Dia menambah: “Anda tidak dapat melihat lantai lagi, atau pasir. Seseorang memberitahu kami tiada tempat untuk mereka pergi kecuali laut.”
Orang ramai bertahan dengan air antara satu hingga tiga liter sehari kerana sistem air musnah atau bekalan berada di kawasan yang terlalu berisiko untuk dicapai, katanya.
“Kami telah melihat gigitan ular dan kala jengking dan orang yang hidup dalam kalangan tikus dan lipas,” kata Wateridge.
Mohammed Tomman, 70, berkata “lebih baik mati daripada hidup dalam penghinaan ini”.
Berasal dari Al Zahra di bandar selatan Gaza, dia melarikan diri empat kali dan telah tinggal di pejabat rakannya di Deir Al Balah kerana kekurangan alternatif.
“Saya akan tinggal di sini sehingga saya mati,” katanya kepada The National.
“Setiap kali saya melarikan diri, ia menelan belanja saya sekitar 500 hingga 800 syikal Israel [$135-$217] yang tidak mampu dimiliki, dan anda tidak boleh membawa semuanya bersama anda. Setiap kali, anda meninggalkan barang-barang anda.”
Perbandaran Deir Al Balah berkata tentera Israel telah mengurangkan ruang kemanusiaan yang ditetapkan untuk melindungi hampir separuh daripada penduduk Semenanjung Gaza kepada hanya 13 km persegi.
“Orang ramai sesat, mereka tidak tahu ke mana hendak pergi,” kata Tomman kepada The National.
“Mereka yang melarikan diri dari Deir Al Balah akan kembali kerana tidak ada tempat lain untuk mereka.”
Hospital Syuhada Al Aqsa
Orang ramai juga mula melarikan diri dari Hospital Syuhada Al Aqsa, kompleks perubatan terakhir yang berfungsi di tengah Gaza, selepas tentera Israel menetapkan kawasan sekitar sebagai “zon tempur”.
“Tentera Israel mengisytiharkan kawasan sekitar hospital sebagai zon operasi militan, yang sepatutnya dipindahkan,” kata jurucakap hospital Dr Dighrn kepada The National.
“Akibatnya, orang ramai yang tinggal berhampiran hospital telah melarikan diri, menimbulkan kebimbangan dalam kalangan pesakit dan sebilangan kakitangan perubatan, yang bimbang hospital mungkin menghadapi nasib yang sama seperti orang lain yang telah menjadi sasaran”.
Walaupun menghadapi cabaran, “kakitangan perubatan kekal di hospital dan terus berkhidmat kepada pesakit dan mereka yang berada di dalam dalam keadaan yang sangat sukar”, tambahnya.
Terdapat kira-kira 100 pesakit masih berada di hospital, tujuh daripadanya dalam rawatan rapi, katanya.
“Kami mencapai tahap bencana,” kata Abu Hassira.
“Saya pergi ke Hospital Syuhada Al Aqsa kerana kawan saya perlu mendapatkan rawatan … kami menghabiskan masa yang lama sehingga kami menemui doktor yang memberi rawatan kepada rakan saya”.
Yasmeen Saleh, 24, juga melarikan diri dari Deir Al Balah ke Al Mawasi di Khan Younis. Seperti ratusan ribu yang lain, dia telah berpindah beberapa kali.
“Saya tiba-tiba sangat takut, pengeboman bermula dan saya tidak tahu ke mana hendak pergi,” katanya.
“Saya pergi bersama anak lelaki saya, tanpa suami saya. Dia meminta kami meninggalkannya kerana dia mahu membawa barangan kami dan menyertai kami tetapi saya tidak dapat menghubunginya dan dia tidak boleh datang kepada kami.”
Rumah mereka telah musnah sepenuhnya, katanya.
“Saya tinggal sekarang di tempat yang tidak mempunyai sebarang keperluan hidup, tiada perkhidmatan perubatan, tiada air. Bagaimana kami boleh bertahan, mengapa kami terpaksa mengalami kehidupan sedemikian?” katanya.
“Kami memerlukan penyelesaian dan menamatkan penderitaan kami.”
THE NATIONAL, 27/08/2024
In English
The Gazans in Deir Al Balah who prefer to die than flee again
Um Yosef Dadalan, a mother of four, fled Deir Al Balah in the central Gaza Strip for Khan Younis, after the area came under intense Israeli bombardment.
The sudden Israeli displacement order on Sunday meant she and her family had to spend the night on the street. “I couldn’t find anywhere to go,” she told The National after leaving to Al Mawasi area.
“I didn’t want to flee but when the bombing got intense I decided to leave because my children were terrified,” said Ms Dadalan, 35.
Officials say she is one of more than 250,000 Palestinians who have been forcibly displaced from Deir Al Balah since August 16, when the Israeli army started to issue eviction orders there. But with no place to go and no money, many Gazans are left stranded.
“It’s so difficult to find a place and I haven’t even managed to get a tent yet,” Ms Dadalan said.
Israel on Sunday ordered people to leave parts of Deir Al Balah, previously designated a humanitarian zone.
Earlier on Monday, the Israeli military said troops were continuing to “dismantle terrorist infrastructure” on the outskirts of the town.
Up to 88.5 per cent of Gaza has been placed under eviction orders since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October, according to the UN, forcing about 1.8 million people to shelter within the so-called humanitarian zone, which spans about 41 sq km and lacks even basic services.
Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) on Tuesday said “only 11 per cent of the territory of the safe strip is not under evacuation orders … so we’re trying to work with that number and keep the operation going”.
Mr Laerke noted that a total of 16 evacuation orders have been issued for the month of August alone, creating upheaval for Gazans already uprooted several times.
The same orders have also encompassed the UN’s aid hub in Deir Al Balah.
“It affected 15 premises hosting UN and NGO aid workers, four UN warehouses, Al Aqsa hospital, two clinics, three wells, one water reservoir and one desalination plant,” he told journalists in Geneva. Adding that the evacuations happened “at very short notice and in dangerous conditions”.
Though thousands have already left, many who have already been displaced several times say they prefer to risk their lives than move again.
Mohammed Abu Hassira, 35, refuses to leave because he has “no place to go to or money to move”.
“There is no dignity left anywhere so I prefer to stay here and not move,” he told The National.
Mr Abu Hassira has been displaced six times during the current war. He has moved across all the areas in the southern Gaza Strip. “You reach a time when you feel fed up,” he said.
“There is no clean or suitable place that provides medical services or even food.”
Up to 30,000 people per square km
Gazans live 30,000 to a square kilometre in Al Mawasi, another so-called humanitarian zone, the UN has said.
In a recent interview with Irish broadcaster RTE radio, Louise Wateridge, communications officer for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said the situation was “catastrophic”. She added: “You can’t even see the floor any more, or the sand. Somebody told us there’s nowhere for them to go but the sea.”
People survive on between one and three litres of water a day because the water system is destroyed or supplies are in areas too risky to reach, she said.
“We’ve seen snake and scorpion bites and people living among rats, mice and cockroaches,” Ms Wateridge said.
Mohammed Tomman, 70, says it is “better to die than live in this humiliation”.
Originally from Al Zahra in southern Gaza city, he fled four times and has been living in his friend’s office in Deir Al Balah because of a lack of alternatives. “I’ll stay here until I die,” he told The National.
“Each time I fled, it cost me around 500 to 800 Israeli shekels [$135-$217] which is unaffordable, and you can’t take everything with you. Each time, you leave your belongings behind.”
Deir Al Balah municipality said the Israeli army has reduced the humanitarian space designated for sheltering nearly half of the Gaza Strip’s population to only 13 sq km.
“People are lost, they don’t know where to go,” Mr Tomman told The National. “Those fleeing Deir Al Balah are returning because there’s nowhere else for them.”
Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital
People have also started fleeing Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, the last functioning medical complex in central Gaza, after the Israeli army designated the surrounding area “a combat zone”.
“The Israeli army declared the areas surrounding the hospital as militant operating zones, which are supposed to be evacuated,” hospital spokesman Dr Dighrn told The National. “As a result, people living near the hospital have fled, causing concern among patients and a number of medical staff, who fear the hospital may face the same fate as others that have been targeted”.
Despite the challenges, “the medical staff remain in the hospital and continue to serve patients and those inside under very difficult circumstances”, he added.
There are about 100 patients still in the hospital, seven of them in intensive care, he said.
“We are reaching a catastrophic stage,” Mr Abu Hassira said. “I went to Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital because my friend needs to get treatment … we spent a long time till we found a doctor who gave my friend treatment”.
Yasmeen Saleh, 24, also fled Deir Al Balah to Al Mawasi in Khan Younis. Like hundreds of thousands others, she has been displaced several times.
“I was suddenly so afraid, the bombing started and I didn’t know where to go,” she said. “I left with my sons, without my husband. He asked us to leave him because he wants to bring our stuff and join us but I can’t reach him and he can’t come to us.”
Their house has been completely destroyed, she said.
“I am staying now in a place that doesn’t have any life essentials, no medical services, no water. How can we survive, why we are forced to experienced such a life?” she said.
“We need a solution and to end our suffering.”
THE NATIONAL, 27/08/2024
