Al-Sudaniya, Gaza Strip — As soon as communications networks went down on Friday, Mohamed said he “knew something was wrong.”
“But we didn’t know what was going to happen.”
For the next 36 hours, Mohamed and 21 other members of his al-Qotati family – immediate and extended relatives – huddled together, shouting loudly as each Israeli shell fell nearby in their district. from al-Sudaniya, north of Gaza, but remaining immobile. .
As the bombs fell, the sudden lack of communications tools paralyzed rescue teams. In the homes, tension rises.
Mohamed gathered all his family members in the same room and asked them to stay under the windows, for fear of glass shattering from Israeli explosions.
Amal, 30, Mohamed’s older sister, said she had never experienced so much fear. “We had no electricity at home and our (flashlights) were barely on,” she recalled.
“The loud explosions shook the ground beneath our feet and lit up the room as if it were midday,” Amal said. “At one point it felt like it was only a matter of seconds before an artillery bomb hit one of our walls, or worse, an airstrike. »
Mohamed said it wasn’t the bombing that scared him so much, but rather the fact that he wouldn’t be able to call for help.
“We all tried turning our phones off and on again, hoping the network service would work again. But unfortunately that was not the case,” he said. “And that seemed the worst of all.”
Beyond the explosions, all we could hear was the roar of Israeli F-16 fighter jets above us.
Everything from the intensity of the bombing to the cutting of communications networks points to a ground invasion in northern Gaza, the family said.
It was the same for the al-Shanti family, living in a two-bedroom apartment in the Jabalia refugee camp with 36 others, whose walls shook every time an explosion occurred nearby.
“No matter how hard we all tried to force masks on, the (noise of) warplanes” hindered our efforts to stay calm, Malak, 22, said. “We all continued to scream and pray that we would stay safe. It was hell,” she remembers.
Malak says an airstrike hit 100 meters from his father’s apartment, shaking the ground beneath his feet and enveloping the room in black smoke.
“It was one of those moments where you feel like your time is up and it’s your turn to die,” Malak said, his voice and eyelids trembling.
Smoke filled the room, choking the family and others crowded into the small apartment. Fearing the children would gag from the acrid fumes, Malak’s mother soaked a towel, hoping the water would act as a mask and keep out the worst fumes.
“Everyone used the same towel, it was all we had to protect ourselves from the smell of the explosives, until my father took off his shirt and helped the other children in the room to breathe normally,” Malak remembers.
The family kept the towel by their side and continued to use it until it was dry.
Meanwhile, rumors of Israel’s intention to invade the Gaza Strip from the north spread like wildfire. Nobody knew what was happening. In the absence of accurate information, stories circulated that the Israeli army moved silently from house to house, silently killing residents.
The family’s instinct to flee for their lives was thwarted only by fear of external bombing.
“It was coming from everywhere and the air raids were falling continuously to the point where we had no place to escape,” Malak said. “The whole of northern Gaza was under fire. We had nowhere to go.
“These were the longest nights since Israel began its war in Gaza. »