Central Gaza Strip – Thousands of displaced Palestinians were forced to leave Gaza City and northern Gaza, heading towards the central region of the coastal territory attacked by Israel.
But many Palestinians have described the so-called “safe corridors” announced by Israel to allow their evacuation as filled with horror.
Ahmad al-Ruweishi was staying at Al Fakhura school in the Jabalia refugee camp when the Israeli army bombed it on Saturday, killing at least 100 civilians.
He said he helped move the remains of at least 20 people killed, their bodies torn into pieces.
“I had to leave to protect my family,” he said. “It was a difficult journey and the soldiers shot me just because I was pushing my mother in her wheelchair. »
Al-Ruweishi said Israeli soldiers forced the men to undress and arrested some of them.
“You couldn’t look behind you, and if you dropped something, they would shoot if you bent down to pick it up,” he said.
The United Nations says at least 1.6 million Palestinians have been internally displaced, the majority of them attending UN-run schools. Others live with foster families or in hospitals.
For weeks, the Israeli army called on Palestinians in northern Gaza to flee to the south, but it continued to target and bomb civilians even there.
“We saw deaths of all colors on Salah al-Din Street,” said Mahmoud al-Madhoun, referring to the main artery that connects the north to the south.
“We saw burned cars and dead bodies on the road, with dogs gnawing at their flesh,” he said. “We couldn’t even restore their dignity by covering them with blankets. »
Al-Madhoun was staying at al-Shifa hospital before managing to leave on Saturday. He recounted the terror felt by patients and displaced people at the hospital when Israeli soldiers attacked the compound and targeted it with bombs.
“When we were finally able to leave the hospital, Israeli snipers were stationed on the roads,” he said.
“They had put up dust barriers and used surveillance technology that took fingerprints from our eyes. It was scary. We never thought we would see the soldiers in the heart of our city where we lived and worked.
Since there were no cars or even ambulances for the sick and injured, al-Madhoun said, they made the long journey on foot. He added that Israeli soldiers ordered them to hold their identity papers in their hands.
He also saw men, women and children taken away by the soldiers, without their fate being known.
“These are not ‘safe corridors,’ they are ‘corridors of deception,'” he said. “They humiliate us, take us away or shoot us. »