“HUNGRY AND AFRAID”
Around half of the enclave’s 2 million people currently live in Gaza City. A few thousand have already left, carrying their belongings on vehicles and rickshaws.
“I stopped counting the times I had to take my wife and three daughters and leave my home in Gaza City,” said Mohammad, 40. “No place is safe, but I can’t take the risk. If they suddenly begin the invasion, they will use heavy fire,” he told Reuters via a chat app.
Others say they will not leave, no matter what.
“We are not leaving, let them bomb us at home,” said Aya, 31, who has a family of eight, adding that they couldn’t afford to buy a tent or pay for the transportation, even if they did try to leave. “We are hungry, afraid and don’t have money,” she said.
A global hunger monitor said on Friday that Gaza City and the surrounding areas are officially suffering from famine that will likely spread. Israel has rejected the assessment and says it ignores steps it has taken since late July to increase aid supply into and across Gaza.
On Sunday, the Gaza health ministry said eight more people died of malnutrition and starvation in the enclave, raising deaths from such causes to 281 people, including 114 children, since the war started. Israel disputes fatality figures by the health ministry in the Hamas-run strip.
The war began on Oct 7, 2023, when Hamas-led gunmen burst into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and taking 251 hostages.
Israel’s military offensive against Hamas has since killed at least 62,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry, left much of the territory in ruins and internally displaced nearly its entire population.
