“The situation is hopeless”: In besieged Gaza, Palestinians under bombardment

“No one is safe from the Israeli attacks and intense bombings day and night,” explains Ziyad Medouk, a French professor at the university who is in the center of Gaza City with his five children. There are no underground passages or air raid shelters here. So we decided to stay home, but this attack was more bloody than the previous one. They destroy buildings, mosques, universities, power stations, water wells, kindergartens.

On Monday evening, Zonal Coordinator Najla ShawaNGO Oxfam, had to rush out of his apartment, threatened by explosions. “We had to leave at midnight. Panic spread through the streets and people screamed for help,” says a resident of Gaza’s western suburbs. As six residential buildings threatened to collapse, Najla and her neighbors fled. “We stayed for several hours in a sheltered restaurant, the owner is one of my neighbors. It was very stressful because the bombings continued until the early hours of the morning, but we still managed to sleep for an hour,” he says. Alexandre confirms that the bombings “intensify at night.” .

Displaced residents

This Tuesday, Najla returns to her neighborhood. The buildings are still standing, with “concrete blocks, the remains of broken glass and windows” piled on the ground. “I was very lucky. It’s minor damage, but we’ve been cleaning all day and this mother of two is breathing. I am very worried and the situation is hopeless. I can’t describe the sense of panic we were experiencing and unfortunately expected to experience a similar night again. “The city center was heavily bombed last night, it was very intense,” tells us Asia Gilani, a French teacher who, with her three boys, has moved accommodation several times since the bombing began. We saw flames and clouds of dust in the sky. This morning we received the order to leave the building: the streets were completely cleared.