Gaza- About two and a half months after his decision to remain in his home in Gaza City, Muhammad Al-Shawa does not regret not moving to the south of the Gaza Strip, like many of his neighbors and hundreds of thousands of others, who were forced to move from this city and cities and towns north of the Strip towards its south, in search of… About missing security.
From the first moment on October 13, when the Israeli occupation army committed the crime of mass displacement of the residents of Gaza City and the towns of Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia and Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip by threatening and committing horrific massacres against them, Muhammad’s decision was decisive: “I will not leave my home.”
Muhammad (51 years old) and his family of 6 individuals live in the “Al-Shawa Square” area in the old city of Gaza City, which derives its name from this family, and it is one of the largest and oldest families in the city. He tells Al-Jazeera Net that “death by a missile or shell is a one-time thing.” “It is a thousand times better than dying every day through oppression and displacement.”
Gaza gets sick and does not die
Muhammad, whose family owns many private and commercial properties in the city, adds, “The occupation has set Gaza back 100 years.” However, he adds, “They killed and destroyed everything, but Gaza is getting sick and not dying, and the will to live in it remains.”
Despite the harshness of life in Gaza, the largest city in the Strip, as a result of isolation, siege, the ferocity of the war with air and artillery bombardment, and the occupation army’s land incursion, hundreds of thousands like Muhammad and his family still give the city “the pulse of life.”
One of them is Mahmoud Atallah, the majority of whose family was displaced towards the cities of central and southern Gaza, while this young man in his thirties, along with a few hundred of his relatives and neighbors, preferred to take refuge in the Young Men’s Christian Association on Al-Jalaa Street, one of the main streets in Gaza City, where they were trapped inside for days, during which they did not find water. And food.
Mahmoud (30 years old) told Tel Aviv Tribune Net, “We spent difficult and horrific days… Rockets were falling around us from the sky, tanks were surrounding us, and their shells destroyed parts of the association’s walls and facilities, and there were martyrs and wounded among us.”
The displaced people in the association were forced to bury the martyrs in its internal courtyards, as they were unable to go out to the cemeteries, in order to avoid death at the hands of occupation snipers who were on the roofs of buildings, and tanks that were targeting anyone moving on the ground.
For long days, Zad Mahmoud and those with him had “a few dates and a little water.” This is shared by Muhammad and the majority of those who remained rooted in their homes, or in shelter centers in schools, hospitals, and public facilities, and they agreed that “obtaining a clean drink of water is a difficult security to obtain.” “.
We are staying here
As the occupation army retreated with its tanks and vehicles from the front lines that penetrated deep into the city towards its outskirts, Mahmoud was able for the first time to return to the place of his home, and he turned into a trace after an eye in the Yarmouk area, which witnessed one of the horrific massacres, committed by Israeli warplanes that launched violent and concentrated raids. On a residential square and completely destroyed it.
Mahmoud does not hide his sadness for his house, which used to house approximately 30 people living in 6 apartments on its three floors. However, at the same time, he shows his determination to persevere, and says in words devoid of doubt, “We will remain here, and we will rebuild with our own hands what the occupation has destroyed.”
After fleeting moments of silence, Mahmoud, who lost a number of his relatives, friends, and neighbors as martyrs, said, “The money will be replaced, the stones we will rebuild, and the trees we will replant, but our loss is great among our loved ones, and we cannot be patient with their separation because they rose as martyrs.”
Among the evidence of the Palestinian’s insistence on staying, the success of doctors at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City and Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip in resuming work, even partially, despite the great challenges facing their work.
Al Awda Hospital resumed its work on a limited scale, following the withdrawal of the occupation army from its surroundings, after about two weeks of siege and shelling of its buildings and facilities with artillery, killing, wounding and arresting a number of its medical and nursing staff.
The director of Al-Awda, Dr. Ahmed Muhanna, was followed by two other detainees from the medical staff, most notably the director of Al-Shifa Hospital, Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya, and the director of the Martyr Kamal Adwan Hospital, Dr. Ahmed Al-Kahlot.
Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest in Gaza, was a target of the occupation army at the beginning of the ground phase of its fierce war on the Strip. It wreaked havoc and destruction on it, and it went out of service, before a limited number of doctors and nurses were able to restart it “partially” to provide primary care to the wounded and sick. Meanwhile, its vital departments are still out of service due to the lack of human and medical resources.
The hospital includes more than 40,000 displaced people, including children and women, in its facilities and departments. They returned to it after the occupation army withdrew from it and were unable to return to their homes, whether due to their destruction or their presence in the areas of incursion, and in dangerous areas close to the security fence. Israeli forces in the north and east of the Gaza Strip.
As for Al-Awda Hospital, the Al-Awda Health and Community Association, which runs the hospital, published an audio message on its official platforms, in which Dr. Muhammad Obaid spoke about the many challenges facing their work, whether in terms of the lack of medical personnel or devices, equipment, and medicines, and warned that “there may be no… We can continue to provide medical service if this situation continues.”
Obaid – an orthopedic specialist at the hospital – said, “The medical and nursing staff are working with exhausted energy and limited capabilities, but they insist on continuing their work until the last moment.” With a lot of pain, Dr. Obaid adds that they had to amputate the limbs of the wounded due to the delay in their arrival to the hospital in a timely manner. Because of aggression and siege. He added that “Al-Awda” is the only hospital currently operating after the collapse of the health system in all hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip.
