Israeli forces are closing in on the north of Gaza City, leaving people with nowhere to go, Ahmed al-Salloudy, who lives in the Abu Eskandar area, told Mada Masr. He and his family decided to stay in their home despite the danger fast-approaching them as the Israeli military advances on their neighborhood.
Salloudy voiced a feeling that was evident among many people in Gaza City who spoke to Mada Masr in recent days, whether from frontier areas of the city or from the increasingly crowded camps in the west.
As Israel deepens its advance, seeking to impose full military control of the city, many describe a state of near indifference to the imminent danger, a resignation emanating from extreme despair amid the sheer lack of options to support survival.
Israel’s military has already eaten into the city’s southeastern neighborhoods for over two weeks, with the daily sound of rapid demolitions in Sabra and Zeitoun audible from kilometers away.
Another rapid advance is taking place from military positions in the city’s northeast and its north, bringing Israeli vehicles and shelling into the Abu Eskandar neighborhood. The entire city was declared “a dangerous combat zone” in recent days.
Thousands of people have already been expelled from Gaza City by the advance; over 50,000 in August alone as per displacement monitoring surveys conducted by Global Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) Cluster.
As per the blueprints for the military operation to “capture” the city, Israel is seeking to displace around 800,000 people to the southern part of the enclave. The invading military has declared that it is “ensuring the safe passage of residents to the southern Gaza Strip” and that it has “facilitated the entry of tents.”
But with many lacking the financial resources needed to pay high fees to travel and seek shelter in the south, Mada Masr observed that thousands of displaced people are instead heading to camps in the city’s west and northwest, where numbers have swelled rapidly in recent days.
There, many taking shelter express the sense that they would rather, “die here than flee south into the unknown.”
Entire camps have sprung up, especially in the northwestern areas of the city, despite the lack of adequate infrastructure, water supply, waste systems and other basic necessities.
Some tents have been pitched in extremely dangerous areas, such as Sudaniya in the north, where Israeli vehicles have conducted regular incursions even before beginning the military operation on Gaza City earlier this month.
Amid the scarcity of options, some have remained in their homes where they expect to face death soon.
As Salloudy said, “western Gaza [City] is full, there is no space there. I’m not thinking of going south either, so I will stay home even if the price is the martyrdom of myself and my family.”
Reports are circulating of almost constant explosions in Salloudy’s neighborhood of Abu Eskander where many other families are also trapped and where potable water has been cut off.
Omar Farwana, an eyewitness, said that the sounds of explosions and the demolition of houses in Abu Iskandar is especially relentless during the night, while military vehicles and bulldozers can be heard carrying out demolitions at all times.
A similar set of rapid demolitions has all but levelled the eastern Zeitoun neighborhood since the beginning of August, Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told Mada Masr.
The Israeli military has been carrying out demolitions at a rate of at least seven operations per day, using excavators and heavy machinery as well as remote-controlled explosives, Basal said. Quadcopter drones are also deployed to drop explosives on rooftops, doubling the scale of destruction
