Gaza- Near a concrete tower used for training, with the official logo of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in its center, Khamis al-Masri digs the ground to install the supports for his new tent.
Al-Masry, who comes from the city of Rafah, is aware of the danger of living in a military site affiliated with the Al-Qassam Brigades, but he justifies this by the lack of other places that can accommodate large numbers of displaced people.
The military barracks, which is locally called “Site 17,” is located west of the city of Deir al-Balah, in the middle of the Gaza Strip. It was vacated by the Al-Qassam Brigades at the beginning of the war that Israel has been waging on Gaza since the seventh of last October.
Urgent need
On a daily basis, the Israeli occupation army bombs sites belonging to the Hamas movement, as well as the homes in which it claims the movement’s members are located.
According to Al-Masry, he and thousands of displaced people have searched a lot for places to stay since their departure from Rafah, to no avail. It is reported that they searched in the Al-Mawasi area, Al-Qararah, which follows Khan Yunis, Deir Al-Balah, and the town of Al-Zawaida, then they returned to Deir Al-Balah, and when they learned that refugees had entered the Qassam Brigades site, they decided to come and pitch their tent there.
Al-Masry told Al-Jazeera Net, “We were displaced in Rafah. There were shells and shelling from the east and west, and we were displaced.” Throughout the past months, residents were afraid to pass by the site for fear that it would be bombed by the occupation forces, but displaced people from Rafah say that it was the urgent need that prompted them to set up their tents inside it.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) estimates that about 150,000 Palestinians have been displaced from Rafah since the start of the Israeli military aggression against the city, according to Louise Waterridge, an official in the agency’s media department, in a blog post on the X platform.
Last Monday, the occupation army ordered residents of eastern Rafah to leave their homes, and began a military operation there. He returned and decided, on Saturday, to expand the operation, as he ordered the residents of the city center to leave. He also called on the residents of Rafah to move towards the coastal area of Al-Mawasi, which extends from Deir Al-Balah in the north, through Khan Yunis Governorate in the south, until the beginnings of Rafah in the far south.
According to observers, the area is already crowded with displaced people and lacks infrastructure.
The decision to leave
The occupation army’s announcement of the start of the attack on Rafah frightened the family of the elderly Badr Saleh (72 years old), so they quickly made the decision to leave Rafah, but the decision collided with the high cost of transportation, so they were forced to collect small gold coins from their daughters and daughters-in-law and sell them to save the money.
She says, “We paid 1,200 shekels ($320) for the truck that transported us here. We sold gold, rings, and thin chains for transportation and food. I collected from my daughters and daughters-in-law. We sold their gold and sold it.”
The family did not know where they should go, so they wandered off looking for shelter, so they headed to the Al-Mawasi area, and moved from Khan Yunis to Al-Zawaida, before landing inside the Al-Qassam Brigades military site. Saleh’s displaced family consists of only women and children, as all the men remained in the northern Gaza Strip.
Rima Al-Khor narrates another aspect of the suffering of the displaced, as she was forced to spend the night with her husband and two children in the open. After the family decided to flee Rafah for fear of being killed by the occupation army, she quickly dismantled her tent located near the Egyptian border. After that, her husband went to look for a car to transport them, but he was surprised by the high prices demanded by the drivers because they had run out of fuel.
Due to the lack of money, the family was forced to sleep in the open after dismantling the tent. The next day, the husband found a family who agreed to share the transportation fare with them. They headed to the town of Al-Qarara, near Khan Yunis, but they did not find a place to pitch their tent, so they went to Deir Al-Balah, then Al-Zawaida, then returned to Deir Al-Balah, and there they learned that a shelter center had been established inside The site of the Qassam Brigades, so they went to it.
Inside the new location, the family faced the same problem, as they were unable to easily install the unprepared tent made of wood and nylon, so they were also forced to sleep in the open air for an additional night.
Al-Khor told Al-Jazeera Net that the mass exodus of people was a terrifying thing, and that she had been crying for 4 days before that. The wife realizes the danger of the place, but she justifies her presence there by saying, “The one who is forced to ride is difficult. We searched in all the cities and did not find a place.”
Paradoxes
“Have we found another place?” With this question, Khaled Balah, who was displaced from Rafah, justified his decision to reside in the Al-Qassam Brigades military site.
He told Tel Aviv Tribune Net, “Where do we go? They chose a better place for us and we will leave this dangerous place immediately. Why do we come to a military site unless necessary?”
In Khaled’s opinion, it is ironic that the displaced people are forced to reside in this dangerous place, after the great expenses they paid to leave Rafah. He added that they paid $300 for transportation and $500 for the tent to sit in this dangerous place threatened by bombing by the occupation.
With great difficulty, Bassem Luz convinced the administration of the shelter center that was hosting them in Rafah to give him the tent in which his family of 15 people was staying. After the family paid 1,700 shekels ($456) for the truck that transported them to Deir al-Balah, Luz decided to stay on the street until a suitable place was found.
When he learned about the military site of the Al-Qassam Brigades, he quickly went to it and set up his tent there. Luz told Tel Aviv Tribune Net, “We feel fear here, this is true, but we are forced. We were going to sit in the street. This location is better than the street despite the danger.”
Ismail Al-Thawabta, Director General of the Government Information Office in Gaza, confirms that the Central Governorate, which includes the city of Deir Al-Balah, is not qualified to receive the displaced people of Rafah. He told Tel Aviv Tribune Net that the population of the governorate is about half a million people, the majority of whom are displaced, and therefore it is not qualified to receive new displaced people.
He also mentioned that the occupation is launching an aggression against the Central Governorate, and within 15 hours (Friday night) 40 people were martyred there, who were displaced from Rafah. He warned that the continuation of the aggression against Rafah and the closure of the Kerem Shalom and Rafah crossings with Egypt will cause a real tragedy and famine in the Strip.