As Israeli planes bombed Gaza, Palestinians in the impoverished coastal strip did what they had done many times over the past decade: fled inland and sought shelter wherever possible in schools, homes and mosques.
Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, crammed into a narrow strip of land just 25 miles long, have endured four wars and chronic poverty in the past 14 years, but now they are bracing for what may be the most ferocious attack yet.
Hamas launched a multi-pronged brazen attack on Israel on Saturday that left at least 700 people dead, and many in Gaza expected the Jewish state to launch its first ground offensive into the Gaza Strip since 2014. Aerial bombardments have killed hundreds and leveled Gaza. To the smoking ruins.
Ataya Azzam, 61, was among Palestinians who evacuated their families south to Egypt or west to the Mediterranean coast as Israeli warplanes circled the skies this week.
“The grandchildren were terrified,” Azam said. He moved his family from Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza to a school run by the United Nations Palestinian relief agency (UNRWA) in the Jabaliya refugee camp. The agency said nearly 74,000 people were sheltering in schools open in the region.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Palestinians in Gaza to “leave immediately” and said in a televised address on Saturday that the army would turn Hamas sites “into rubble”. But he did not say where residents of the enclave, whose exit points are tightly controlled by Israel and Egypt, are expected to go.
Gazans trapped in the area are moving within the country in search of safety. Azam said his family had learned from past conflicts and would try to rent an apartment in Jabaliya.
“Based on our experience in the 2014 war, we believe schools are a safe place,” Azam added.
In its previous two ground incursions into Gaza, Israeli attacks leveled parts of the Gaza corridor. This time, Israel says it is in a state of war and will not end its operations until Hamas surrenders. It also declared a “total siege” of the territory it had sealed off, with electricity, food, fuel and even water supplies cut off.
The violence that began over the weekend has so far killed at least 700 Israelis, making it the worst single attack in the history of the Jewish state. Palestinian gunmen have kidnapped more than 100 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly, and forced them into Gaza as hostages, a move that could complicate Israel’s attack plans.
Health officials in Gaza said more than 560 Palestinians, including women and children, had died in three days as Israel began to retaliate. About 2,900 people were injured.
As of Monday, Israeli jets, helicopters, aircraft and artillery struck hundreds of what the military said were Hamas and Islamic Jihad “terror targets” in the Gaza Strip as part of Operation Iron Sword.
It included a number of multi-story buildings, including one that housed a “Hamas terror command center” and another for the group’s navy, the report said. The Israeli military added that another target was a mosque containing unspecified “Hamas assets.” The Financial Times was unable to independently verify the claims. Palestinian media reported that the attack destroyed the homes of several senior Hamas figures.
Although Israel maintains heavy security around Gaza, Hamas uses the strip as a launching pad for rockets and other attacks against the Jewish state. In this densely populated area, civilians live side by side with militants, putting them at risk in times of war.
Aid workers have described the area as an open-air prison, and two years ago UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: “If there is a hell on earth, it is the lives of Gaza’s children”.
UNRWA said 14 of its buildings and other facilities were damaged during the Israeli operation and a school housing more than 225 people was hit directly, without casualties.
Israeli military spokesman Richard Hecht said on Monday that Israel had “made every effort to minimize collateral damage.” But he reiterated long-standing Israeli accusations that Palestinian militant groups use civilian buildings to ambush their operations. “Hamas has taken root among civilians in a cynical way,” Hecht said.
Palestinians – some of whom have cheered Hamas’s unprecedented attacks on Israeli territory on the streets of Gaza and on social media – are used to Israeli military attacks, but this war is expected to be particularly brutal and punitive of. The Israeli public remains shocked by Hamas attacks and videos shared online of Gaza residents trampling on Israeli corpses brought back to Gaza, spitting on them and beating live prisoners.
Hamas’s dominance of the strip dates back to 2007, when the Islamist group took full control of the area following a civil war with rival Palestinian faction Fatah. In 2005, Israel stopped occupying the territory and withdrew its troops and settlers under then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon; Hamas won elections in 2006.
Palestinian leaders and aid agencies say humanitarian conditions in Gaza are deteriorating as recent bombardments continue. Israel said on Monday it planned to completely seal off the enclave.
Defense Minister Yove Galante said he had ordered a “siege” of Gaza. “There will be no power, food or fuel,” he said. “We are fighting brutal (terrorists) and will respond accordingly.”
Israel on Saturday stopped supplying electricity to Gaza, which has suffered severe power shortages even during a period of relative calm. On Monday, the U.N. humanitarian affairs agency OCHA said Gaza’s diesel power plants “could run out of fuel within days.”
Israel also closed crossing points linking Gaza residents to the outside world, allowing them to obtain fuel, medicine and other necessities after Hamas militants breached the heavily fortified Israeli border barrier.
Energy Minister Israel Katz said on Monday he had instructed authorities to cut off water supplies to Gaza, a move that was quickly criticized by Israeli NGOs.
“Just as you cannot justify the heinous acts against civilians in southern Israel, you cannot turn around and deliberately target civilians in Gaza by cutting off water and electricity supplies and deliberately attacking civilian homes and infrastructure,” he said. Tania Hari is the executive director of Gisha, an NGO working for freedom of movement in Gaza.
A Palestinian health official said that while hospitals were dealing with an influx of wounded, medical supplies, drugs and laboratory materials were still insufficient.
“Before these events, the situation was very bad,” said Medhat Abbas, director-general of the Hamas-controlled health ministry. “Today, we consume as much in a day as we normally consume in a month. In a few days, our stocks will be exhausted.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross said basic services such as water and electricity in Gaza “are already under increasing pressure” and it is supporting medical facilities with equipment such as stretchers, surgical tools and casualty kits.
“People’s lives have been devastated and there is no telling what will happen in the coming days,” the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
Additional reporting by Samer Al-Atrush in Dubai
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